The Earth's Secret
by Terra-kun
Summary: A new girl has been rushed to the hospital of Konoha with seemingly fatal wounds. Secrets cannot be hidden for long, especially not life changing ones. A deep secret lies unbidden in this girl. Who will be the one to discover it?
1. Chapter 1 A brush with Blood

Disclaimer: I do not (unfortunately) own Naruto or any of those characters but I DO own Terra. Yeah…

Authoress: Thank you disclaimer you are doing a very good first job! Anyway people this is my first FanFic so please don't be too harsh! And no flaming!

**Chapter 1**

It was one night, the same as any other. I was sitting in my room reading a book on how chakra works (since I don't use it). My mum was downstairs cooking the dinner and my dad was fixing a shelf to the wall. Our house was a two floor house, but it wasn't like the houses today. It was built on the water and it was made from wood, only the window and sliding doors were made of glass. The wood was clever though, as they looked just like tiles! I loved our house. Although it was built on the water there was a peer connecting us to the mainland. We didn't live in a village; we lived in the middle of nowhere. I loved it so much because there were so many trees and a great waterfall in the woodland. I fell very close to nature and the earth. I guess it's since my powers are based around the earth and its elements. Well, my name does mean earth in Latin. But of course I didn't realise I was all that different, until tonight.

Any way back to me in my room, it was late at night and it was a full moon. I put down my book to stare out of my window at the full moon and the stars. They were so beautiful and memorising. Just looking at them filled me with so many different emotions. I heard someone enter through our sliding door from downstairs. I just brushed it off as one of my parents moving around. There were a few bangs and I thought my dad must have dropped the shelf. That's kind of unusual; my dad doesn't normally drop things. He must not be feeling to good.

"Terra!" my mum called me from downstairs. "Come downstairs and say hello to our visitor!" what was a visitor doing in our house this late at night? Actually, a visitor? That's strange I don't know any one. I guess it could be one of my parent's friends.

"Okay! Coming!" I climbed off my bed and opened the door of my room and went down the slightly squeaking timber stairs. I went into the room where my mother's voice had come from. It was our spare room, which was empty apart from a cupboard at the back and a table in the middle. This was a weird room to be inviting the visitor into, it's barely ever used.

When I pushed back the sliding door the first thing I noticed was the lack of light except the moon streaming in through the window's blinds. I walked in and looked to the left of me. Mum and dad were both backed up against the wall. Mum was looking at the floor while dad was looking behind me. Suddenly I knew something wasn't right.

"Mum, dad, what's wrong?" dad continued to look behind me. I turned round to see a man in a black cloak with red flowers on it. He had a hat on so I couldn't see his face. "Who are you?" I questioned, slight fear from my voice. If he could scare my parents I was right to be worried.

"My name is Itachi" I've heard about this man, he was the one who killed his entire clan except his little brother. Why was he here? "Terra, I wanted you to witness this"

"Witness what?" I was starting to get panicky, why weren't mum and dad doing anything? They were highly ranked ninjas, shouldn't they do something? He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me so I was in front of him and facing my parents.

"Stop it!" screamed my mum. Silent tears were pouring down her face.

"Mum, dad! Help me!" I yelled. Itachi leaned forward to whisper in my ear...

"I stopped their flow of chakra, they can't do anything to help you, and now I will disable yours" he hit me in the middle of the back of my neck. That's where he made his greatest mistake. My powers aren't based on the use of chakra; I was born with a heritage to the earth. I am an earth child, and so I made a contract with the earth. So I let him think he had cut of my chakra in the hope that it would come in handy later.

Itachi held a kunai (a type of fighting knife) in his hand, menacingly twisting and observing it as if to figure out how he was going to kill us.

"Stop! Leave her alone!" cried my mother. She ran towards him with a fire burning in her hand. How is she doing that with no chakra left? Mother really was amazing. As she came towards Itachi and me she dropped to the floor screaming in pain.

"What's happening?" I shouted. Father ran to my mother's side and kneeled next to her and propped her up so she was sitting up right, leaning on him with her legs straight in front of her, staring straight at me. Anger was burning in my father's eyes, strong and passionate.

Without me realising, Itachi had raised the kunai and struck it into my shoulder. I screamed with pain and fell onto my knees. The blood was streaming down my arm and forming in a puddle around me. I pulled the kunai from my arm which just made the bleeding worse. Mother looked in anxiously and father groaned in the knowledge he was powerless to do anything but watch.

"Stand up" commanded Itachi. I don't know why but I did, his voice was strangely hypnotising. By now the pool of blood around my feet was large enough to look like it had been raining blood in my house. Suddenly the blood started moving, more accurately it started forming, into hands. What was this? I looked at Itachi who was staring intently at the blood. Suddenly he turned to me. The hands looked perfectly normal, except for the fact they were blood.

"Watch as I murder your parents with _your_ blood" he put extra stress on the word your. I tried to move but I couldn't. I shouted at myself,

"Why can't I move?" Itachi just looked at me and smiled a smug smile, a smile that said 'I am going to succeed'. My fists shook with anger. The hands suddenly leapt out of the ground and raced towards my parents. Two of the hands got my mum around the neck and forced her into the wall; three hands went after my dad and forced him into the wall. The hands were still connected to the pool of blood; it was like there were arms from the puddle. There was pain on my parent's faces but they didn't say a thing. They are the bravest people in this world, and it's my fault they are like this now.

"Say goodbye" whispered Itachi. My mother smiled, looked at me and said,

"It's not your fault." The hands then squeezed harder causing my mum and dad to wince in pain, then from the puddle shot six spears made of blood. Three went to my mother and three to my father. One struck the heart, one the stomach, and one the throat. I screamed and fell down onto the floor. I backed up to the wall opposite. This can't be happening... why... why couldn't I save them... My mother and father held hands and smiled.

"Stay safe" Said Father. "Say goodbye to your brother for us"

Never forget we love you" whispered mother. I looked on in disbelief. With that they both said one last thing together.

"Remember, you are never alone" and their bodies went limp, making it impossible not to feel alone. Itachi turned to me.

"Your turn" he said. I had worked out by now that he was manipulating the blood to his will, no, not the blood... _my_ blood. The thought sent a shudder through my body. He sensed it and his grin widened for a second, then went slack and his face was blank of all emotions.

All the blood retreated to the puddle making my parent's bodies slid to the floor still holding hands. Everything was still. Itachi turned and took one step towards me.

"I'll let you live on one condition..."I looked at him, I wasn't going to die here, and I was going to kill him. "Give me the jewel" in the middle of my top there is a red circle jewel. So that's what he was after.

"You know if you kill me, you destroy the jewel" I said, smirking. A hand shot from the puddle grabbing me around the throat, shoving my back into the wall.

"Don't play with me girl" he said menacingly.

"Well I'm not going to give it to you, so, kill me" I laughed internally at the thought of the bitter sweet embrace of death, but that would have to wait until after I had killed Itachi.

"As you asked so nicely" A spear of blood shot from the puddle and stopped an inch from where my heart would be if he pierced my skin. "Prepared to be killed by your own blood" I had frozen in fear, there was only a little flickering peace of hope in me, like a white butterfly among a black nights sky. As the blood went forward he had made another mistake. He was making it go forward slowly to cause me a slow painful death; this gave me time to think about knocking it away. I started making calculations for my escape.

He saw me concentrating, I had started to figure out away to get out and he knew it. He sped the spear of blood up. Before it hit me, something shot from the floor knocking it off course making it plunge just below my heart. I screamed in pain but took the time to yank the blood hand from my neck and pull the blood spear from my body. I stood up and ran as fast as I could out of my house onto the mainland with no space in my mind to think about my parents, the alarms in my mind ringing with pain. I ignored the pain as best I could and kept running into the forest. I hid behind a tree and sunk to my knees. I held the wound that the spear had made applying pressure to try and slow the blood flow. My breathing was heavy and erratic. I was sure Itachi would soon be after me. My eyes began to close as my site went out of focus.

I heard voices in the distance, it wasn't Itachi's though. Someone had heard the commotion and come to save us! I didn't get to see who had come to save us as I fell prey to the black veil of unconsciousness.

Authoress: So that's the first chapter up! R & R people!


	2. Chapter 2 Unfamilliar Surroundings

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto although I would very much like to.

Authoress: Enjoy people! And don't forget to check out my friend DarkWolfAngel187's stories!

**Chapter 2**

I woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. I sat up, suddenly realising that I wasn't in my normal clothes. I glanced at my hands, and to my relief, they were still gloved. I looked around. It was a plain, pale blue room, with glass sliding double doors. At the opposite side of the room to me was a picture on the wall of a cherry blossom tree. Sakura. Under that was another bed, which was lying against the wall. It was empty. Next to me was a small bedside table with a single flower in it. It was a daffodil. On the other side of my bed was a chair, and behind that chair was a plain brown door with a small square of blotchy glass. I'm in a hospital.

I tried to remember were I was, and how I got here. Then it all came flooding back. Itachi, mother, father, blood. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes threatening to leak out. But I still couldn't remember how I got here, or where here was. Surely I should have died. Those wounds were fatal!

I heard someone talking outside my room and immediately lay back down in the bed, turned and faced the window and pretended to be asleep. Someone came in the room.

"Terra?" Someone placed a hand on my shoulder. "Terra?" It sounded like a male voice. I sat up and turned round to see who it was.

"Kakashi?" I couldn't believe my eyes. I rubbed my eyes to see if what was happening was true. "Kakashi!" I hugged my brother tightly and he hugged me back. But the sudden movement of leaning over to him has caused me pain. I withdrew from his arms holding the place where my own blood had struck me. I grimaced in pain. "Where am I?" I asked, my breathe sharp and ragged.

"Konoha hospital" I looked at him with questioning eyes. As ever, Kakashi gave away no thoughts or feelings in those eyes of his. "A passing group heard the commotion and brought you back. They saw you unconscious against a tree and couldn't leave you there. Kiba carried you back."

"Kiba?"

"Yeah, he was the leader of the group on that mission. Hinata spotted you and Shino's bugs felt your presence."

"Oh okay" I muttered feebly. I knew what was coming next but I really didn't want to have to explain to my brother how I killed my own parents.

"Terra" Kakashi sighed, "You know they found mum and dad dead don't you" how could I forget? Tears pricked at my eyes but I refused to cry. "Terra, what happened?"

"You think I killed them don't you?" Kakashi just looked down. "Ever since we moved from that village because of who I am, so I could be taken away from the loneliness, so I wouldn't hurt anyone any more, you think it got out of control don't you?" Kakashi stayed silent. "Well, you're right. I killed them. But it wasn't because I got out of control" I looked at the wall straight ahead of me, while Kakashi lifted his head and looked at me. He had emotion in his eyes. Funny the first emotion I see in his eyes is anger. He rose from the chair he was sitting on and turned to go.

"How… how did you kill them?"

"With my blood" I had no emotion in my voice anymore. It's my fault they're dead, if only I was a little stronger, a little braver, I could have saved them.

"Show me" I looked at him. He had turned back round and was crouching by the bed. I stared at him.

"You…you don't think I did it?"

"No matter what you are…" he shook his head "You couldn't have done this" I couldn't say anything. My parents and Kakashi were the only ones that have never been afraid of me.

"Bring me a leaf" I said. He slid open the sliding doors and stepped out. He suddenly disappeared briefly and then reappeared on the balcony with a green leaf in his hand. He closed the doors walked back over to the chair and sat down. I propped myself up against my pillows and put my hand out. Kakashi looked at me.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I just smiled at him. This was going to be painful but I'm going to have to face up to it some day. Some how fake smiles just make it easier.

I looked at the wall straight ahead of me and closed my eyes. I placed the leaf in the middle of my forehead with my hand holding it in place. I recalled everything about that day, like it was only five minutes ago. Every little detail reappeared in front of my eyes. The leaf on my head started to glow a faint blue. Then I saw the one image that haunts me. Mum and dad, my blood, I can't do it, I don't want to remember. With the hand that was free I clenched the bed sheet. I was about to stop when I felt a hand on my own. That's right, Kakashi is my only family now, and I had to do what I could for him, no matter how much it hurt.

By the time I had finished seeing myself sit at the tree with blood pouring from my arm and stomach, I was shaking. I took the leaf from my head and handed it to Kakashi. He took the leaf from my shaking hand. He placed the leaf to his own head. The leaf glowed a faint blue. He had his eyes shut. I didn't want to see his reactions, so while he was watching my memory I got out of bed and walked to the window. I pushed back the sliding door and walked to the balcony. I looked over this bustling village. Everything was so strange to me.

Everyone was laughing and chatting merrily. I looked towards the back of the village where there was a huge rock face with five faces carved into it. Four men and a woman right at the end. The woman had a beauty about her, she looked young yet, even in the rock, her eyes looked like they knew more than they should. Just in front of that there was a small red building with the symbol of fire on it. Of course, I was in the fire country now. As I went back to just looking at all the people a certain group of people drew my eye. Oh, how I longed to be a part of that. To be someone normal…

They were Konoha and sand ninjas. The one that drew my eyes most was the red headed boy with a gourd on his back. Around him were two other sand ninja, one a girl with blonde hair and the other a boy dressed in black. The others were Konoha ninja. A blonde boy in orange was being really loud and making a fool of himself. There was a girl with pink hair next to him and a boy in blue with black hair. There were also others, a girl with blue hair and a girl with blonde hair and another girl with brown hair. A boy with a dog and a boy with a black short pony tail, another with a super bowl cut and on with long brown hair, there were two other boys as well, one eating packet after packet of potato chips and one with glasses and the bottom half of his face hidden by his coat.

I was just watching them laughing and having fun when the blonde boy pointed at me, they all started to turn to look at me but before they could say anything I was back inside. They had seen me, but not closely enough to notice anything major. I sat on the end of my bed hands in my head.

"You'll be out there with them soon" I turned and saw two women smiling at me with Kakashi standing next to them. I recognised one of the women as the one on the rock wall. I was right she did look young but her eyes were much older. The other woman had short black hair and was carrying a pig. "How are you feeling Terra" The woman with the blonde hair asked. I just stared at them blankly. "Oh!" She smiled at me "I'm sorry, I'm Tsundae, the Hokage of this village and this is Shizune my apprentice." The black haired lady – Shizune smiled at me. So that's why I had seen her on the rock face she was the leader of the village. Shizune began talking to me.

"You need to take it easy, that wound was pretty tricky to heal, and I had trouble doing it. I didn't know what could make that kind of wound, I've never seen it before" She stopped smiling at the site of my face. "I'm sorry" she apologised "I should have thought about what I was saying" I shrugged it off. It was going to be a lot like this from now on.

"So you're a medical ninja?" she looked at me surprised. She was obviously expecting me to break down and cry.

"Yeah, I am, I learnt everything from Tsunadae" I looked at the Hokage. She didn't look very talented, but I, above all people understand how well looks can deceive.

"Well I guess since your in charge you have to know what happened, right?" I questioned. All three of them stopped smiling and began to look serious. Kakashi started talking.

"Listen, Terra, Tsunadae and Shizune have to know what happened, they are in charge of this village and have to know what to prepare for"

"If you think I'm planning on staying here, you're wrong" I stared at Kakashi. I could tell he was wounded by what I just said. "Calm down I'm only joking!" I smiled broadly. Tsundae whispered under her breath.

"How can she smile so broadly at a time like this?"

"Kakashi, they can use the leaf." I put my hands in my lap and started to fiddle with my fingers. I looked downwards not wanting to meet the gaze of the three adults

"Are you sure?" I could feel him looking at me, but I wouldn't look at him.

"Leaf?" said Tsundae looking confused.

"Here" Kakashi handed the leaf to Tsunadae. "Place it in the middle of your forehead, keep your hand on it, close your eyes, and focus on the leaf being there" Tsunadae did what she was told. When she had finished she handed the leaf to Shizune without saying a word.

Once all the adults were done talking to me, they left me to get changed. Before they left I asked Shizune a question.

"Excuse me, um, Shizune-chan?" she turned round and looked at me with a sympathetic look on her face "Do you know who gave me the daffodil?"

"Yes! That was Sakura; you'll meet her once you have got changed. She is also a medical Ninja, Kakashi taught her for a while then Tsundae-sama took her on. She is looking forward to meeting with you" She smiled at me and I smiled back. She left shutting the door behind her saying "Kakashi, will meet you out here in fifteen minutes"

Authoress: Guess what? Yep, you guessed it R & R people!


	3. Chapter 3 A New Aquatience

Disclaimer: …isn't it obvious? No she doesn't own Naruto…

Authoress: I do own Terra though!

**Chapter 3**

I opened the door to come into a thin corridor, big enough for two people to walk side by side. It was very light as all the wall to my left was mostly windows while to my right it was doors, just what you'd expect a hospital to be like.

I entered through an archway into a room with a desk and two women at it. There was a computer and a phone on the desk, with a small green potted plant and lots of paper everywhere. There was rotating glass doors at the entrance and on the wall to the right of that were chairs all lined up. Sitting on the last one was Kakashi.

"Ready to go meet everyone?" I just looked at him. "Oh, don't worry you won't be seeing everyone at once, first you'll meet my team" I smiled and nodded. Kakashi never seemed to take anything seriously. Just how I remember him when he last visited!

As I stepped through the rotating doors with Kakashi in front of me, I looked at the blue sky. The breeze hit me and the wind picked up through my long purple hair. Kakashi led me to a small block of flats. We entered the block. It was just plain, an entrance with stairs and rooms on a bottom floor. We didn't take the stairs we walked straight on until we came to a room with number 18 on it.

"This is where you are going to be living okay?" he said to me. I opened the door and entered into the cutest flat I had ever seen. It had a small cornered of kitchen on the left hand side and a small bedroom on the right. Straight ahead was the bathroom and there was a living room.

"Wow this is quite big" I said.

"Yeah" answered Kakashi "It's kept free incase something like you comes along" I looked at him and said in a mock hurt voice

"What do you mean _something_?" he just smiled and thought to himself 'she never seems to stop smiling'. I dropped my stuff on the green couch and looked at him. He chucked me the keys. I caught them and we walked out while I locked the door behind us.

We walked through the village where he had to keep telling me to hurry up because I kept stopping and staring. It wasn't just me who did my fair share of staring either. People stopped what they were doing to look at me. It's like they knew everyone in the village, except me.

"Everyone knows each other in this village" said Kakashi. Oh great, I thought I was only joking but obviously it was serious. The shops and houses started to thin out abit and we took a right turn and trees started to appear.

As we walked further in the trees and woodland got thicker. I eventually started to hear some voices. Two male and one female. The males were obviously shouting at each other while the girl seemed to be defending one of them.

"Kakashi?"

"Yeah, they take a while to get used to, but the girl you meet is the one who bought you the flower. Actually she helped heal your wound." Wow, that girl must be pretty good to be able to have healed something like that.

As the three people came into site I realised I recognised them from earlier. It was the loud blonde boy in orange and the pink haired girl and the black haired boy in blue. When they heard us the blonde boy ran to us.

"Kakashi your late!" he cried. The pink haired girl walked over. I remembered her name was Sakura.

"Again." She accused. The other boy drew up on the other side of the girl.

"Right everyone" said Kakashi "we now have a new member of the team, Terra, come here" I stepped out from behind my brother and smiled at the three faces. "This is my younger sister, Terra" They almost fell over when they heard that.

"What! You have a sister?" said the blonde boy. I walked to the girl.

"You must be Sakura right?" I smiled. She nodded and smiled back. "Thank you for the flower, it was the most interesting thing in that room" she laughed. We shook hands. The blonde boy jumped in between Sakura and me and stuck out a hand.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" I giggled at him.

"I am Hatake Terra" I took my hand away from him and stepped back. I looked at the last boy he didn't put his hand out or even look at me he just said his name.

"Uchiha Sasuke" My eyes widened… this couldn't mean… no…

"You know Itachi" It wasn't a question it was a statement. The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. He lifted his head up and looked at me in the eyes. He had the same cold stare which sent a shiver down my spine.

"He is my brother" that was it. That was all I needed. I was frozen in fear, I couldn't move from that spot. Kakashi must have known. Then why did he make me work with a person whose brother was my parents murderer and very nearly took my own life.

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto.

"Terra, he's not the same person you have to know that" Kakashi's whisper came from behind me. I didn't know what to do. "He hates his brother as much as you do" there was confusion on all three of the others faces.

"I can't do this, how can you make me work with him?" I whispered to Kakashi my voice hoarse.

"Terra calm down it's not the same person, remember Itachi killed his whole clan, Sasuke isn't like that."

"He has the same eyes as Itachi" With that I couldn't stay there any longer. I turned and took to the trees jumping from tree to tree as fast as I could. I heard Kakashi shout at me but I just ignored him. The further into the forest I got the thicker the trees began to get. I kept running until I was satisfied they wouldn't be able to find me for a couple of hours.

I jumped down from the tree I was in and landed in the middle of a ring of trees. It was like a small clearing, it looked perfect for training. From behind me I heard something shoot from out of the trees. A shrunken. I jumped sideways out of the way when four more shot at me leaving no way to escape. I had to think and fast. There was no way I could dodge them. I put my hands in front of my stomach horizontally and put one hand on top of the other. They glowed a faint blue them out from the ground shot four green, vine like things knocking the shrukens away. I took my hands away from my stomach but left the vines out for protection. I heard something rustle from my right and looked from the corner of my eye and saw a blue shoe. Without letting the enemy know what I was doing (as I had judged there were four of them from the shrukens) I manipulated one of the vines so it went and slithered along the ground and wrapped itself around the foot. Quickly I tightened it and dragged a girl from the bushes. I hung her upside down in the air so her head was next to mine, and turned her so she was facing the same direction as me. I held a kunai to her throat.

"If you don't want her to die I suggest you come out" nothing moved and no one came out. Just to show I was serious I put the kunai to her throat and made a small cut. She took a small intake of breath at the sharp pain. But I had made a mistake. I had forgotten how unused to blood I still was.

My grip on the kunai loosened and the enemy noticed. Two shrukens came flying from the trees. One knocked the kunai from my hand and one cut the vine that was holding the girl. Before she hit the ground, a blur of green went passed me, caught her and went into a tree. I looked up to the branch where a man in green with orange leg warmers and a super bowl haircut appeared. He put the girl down and she stood next to him. Suddenly out of nowhere appeared a smaller version of the older guy (obviously a sensei) with massive eye brows and a boy with long brown hair. I vaguely recognised these people but I couldn't remember where from.

Suddenly the boy in green disappeared and repapered in front of me. Boy he was fast.

"Don't threaten Tenten or you will have to deal with me".

"You're abit overly cocky, aren't you?" I replied with a smirk. He just smiled. He disappeared again. I looked round cautiously. He was fast. Too fast for my liking. Unfortunately for him I had the upper hand. My powers revolve from around the earth and its elements. I crouched down and put one hand on the ground, it started to glow a faint blue.

"Rock wind!" I shouted. In a circle around me rocks began breaking out from the earth. When the rocks had broken from the ground I stood up. The rocks formed a circle around me. They began to spin faster and faster. I raised my hand upwards. I was controlling the rocks now. The rocks moved upwards so they were in a large circle spinning around my hand. I lifted my other hand up so my hands were back to back. The rocks split into two and I now had two circles of rocks. One circling each hand.

"What is this?" said the girl in the tree.

"Byakugan!" the other boy said. Oh, so he's a byakugan user. Interesting. "This is impossible! She's not using any chakra!"

"You better believe it!" I shouted. I laughed. "Come on out! Or are you scared?" that got the effect I exactly wanted. I had adjusted my senses so rather than using my eyes I was using the feelings of the grass. Every foot step he took I could feel it and knew exactly where he was coming from. As he came towards me I got ready to fight him using close combat. He came right in front of me and went to kick me and I went to stop him with the rocks I was wielding when someone came in the middle of us. He held the boys foot fast and held my wrist in a way so he couldn't get hit. Then I realised who it was.

"Kakashi!" The older guy in green came by the side of Kakashi. Kakashi let go of my wrist and the rocks dropped to the ground. He let go of the other boys' foot and the other two people joined us.

"You know him?" asked the boy I was fighting.

"Duh" I replied "He's my bro…."

"Terra, that's enough" Kakashi cut in. I just stared at him.

"So sorry Kakashi, I didn't know you knew her" said the older one "We haven't seen her around here before and so we were going to catch her and take her back to Tsunadae"

"Oh you did well then" I smirked. Kakashi gave me a warning look and I just folded my arms.

"No problem Gai, she ran off without telling us where she was going I didn't expect her to pick a fight." Gai laughed.

"How did you come by this one then?" he asked.

"Well I was going to tell you when we got back, but now you've asked" said Kakashi "the truth is she's my younger sister" the three children gawped at Kakashi then me. Gai looked just as amazed.

"I never knew you had a younger sister" Kakashi put his hands on my shoulders and ruffled my hair.

"Yeah, well I don't like to advertise this one" he laughed, so did Gai. I stepped forward so he couldn't put his hands on my shoulders any more. I walked to the three kids.

"Umm... yeah, so no hard feelings? Its just I wasn't exactly expecting to be attacked this early in the day. I'm Hatake Terra!" I smiled and held my hand out to the boy I was fighting.

"No hard feelings, I'm Rock Lee!" he took my hand and smiled back. I took my hand away and faced the girl.

"Sorry about that!" I smiled at her and she held out her hand

"I'm Tenten, nice to meet you Terra!" She took her hand away and I turned to face the other boy.

"So, byakugan huh?" I said.

"You know it?" he questioned.

"Of course!" I held out my hand and he took it without smiling and shook it.

"Hyuuga Neji" he said. I smiled in answer. I put my hand by my side and walked back so I was next to Kakashi. After all the introductions I heard voiced behind us.

"Kakashi!" it was Naruto and the others. I was about to take of again because I didn't want to see Sasuke when Kakashi grabbed my wrist.

"You're not going anywhere" he said to me. Gai looked at Kakashi then at me.

"Okay I get it" I said roughly. He gave me one last hard stare then dropped my wrist. Unfortunately I had no choice, now we had hooked up with Gais' team there were people here faster than me.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke landed in front of the six of us.

"Lee, Neji, Tenten hi!" cried Naruto with a broad smile. "I see you found Terra". I scowled at him, and he looked hurt.

"Yeah" replied Lee "We started a fight as well, which by the way Terra, we must continue at one point"

"Yeah" I replied. Naruto and Sakura looked at me while Sasuke was more interested in the ground, which frankly I was fine about.

"Which by the way, I wanted to ask a question about" I looked at Neji. "How come when I used my Byakugan I couldn't see you using chakra" I shot a worried look at Kakashi who came to my rescue.

"Well it's been nice talking to you and everything, but we have to get back and talk to Tsundae. Gai I need to speak to you about something important tonight" Gai just nodded. I wonder what that is about. I looked at Tenten.

"We should meet up some time" I suggested.

"Yeah I'd like that" she replied. I smiled.

"Well bye everyone!" I smiled and Kakashi's team took to the trees.

"She seemed nice" said Lee.

"Yeah but I can't help feeling there is something, well, suspicious about her" Gai looked at Neji.

"I know what you mean Neji. Right then everyone I guess it's time we started getting back too!" with that team Gai also took to the trees, slightly behind team Kakashi.

Authoress: Good at making friends isn't she? Review please! Make my day!


	4. Chapter 4 What is right and what is easy

Disclaimer: However much she would love to she doesn't own Naruto…

Authoress: Cries bitterly

**Chapter 4**

We arrived at the village and the two teams split up. After we had said our goodbyes Kakashi began to speak to the four of us.

"I expect you all to meet at the training area at 8:00am tomorrow morning"

"Wait, I never said I wanted to train, how come you expect me to become a ninja so suddenly?" I asked him. Sakura looked at me.

"Okay, I'll come along, but only as a tryout!" I smiled. Sakura smiled at me.

"Okay everyone we will part ways for today, see you tomorrow." I was about to move to go back to my apartment when Kakashi called me back. "Terra, we're going to see Tsunadae" I nodded and we began running to the hokage's building.

When we arrived I was surprised. It was the building I had seen from my hospital window. It was red with the sign of fire on it. We went up some steps and entered the round building into a small hallway. We walked along for a while until we came to a door. Kakashi knocked on it.

"Wait here" he said to me. I nodded. He went in and closed the door behind him. This isn't normally something I would do, but, I just had to know what they were talking about. I knew if I put my ear to the door they would notice so what could I do? After a while of thinking I realised what I could do. I closed my eyes and felt for the presence of a live plant somewhere inside the room. There! I felt the life force of a small plant, but luckily it was big enough for me to use.

I crouched down onto the floor and placed my hand onto the floor. It started glowing blue and suddenly I could feel myself inside the plant. I could here, see and feel everything the plant did. That's the thing people underestimate about plants. They do a lot more than you expect them to. Suddenly I could here what they were talking about. It was Tsundae and Kakashi.

"She hasn't taken it well with Sasuke" Kakashi said. "She ran off and tried to pick a fight with Lee"

"Kakashi, I'm not so worried about her condition and fears at the moment I'm more worried about something else". A thought sprung to my mind. There is no way Kakashi could have told her. No. "I think there is something that you aren't telling me" she continued. Kakashi looked at her with his expressionless face and emotionless eyes. "There's something…" she paused looking for words "…different about Terra, isn't there" I didn't like where this conversation was heading. "Why did you live in that house away from the main hidden village? Your parents being as skilled ninjas and you being one yourself I thought it would be obvious she would become a great ninja too" Kakashi's eyes seemed to look sympathetic for a moment.

"Yes, she is different" If he said any more I would have to do something. "There's a reason we moved from the village, she contains something…" that was it I couldn't listen to him rambling so carelessly about something like this. I quickly withdrew from the plant and burst in through the door.

"Kakashi! Stop it!" he looked alarmed for a second and then went back to his emotionless self. "Why? Why are you telling her all this? You promised to keep it a secret!" Tsunadae looked from Kakashi to me. Then Kakashi spoke.

"Terra, she is the Hokage she needs to know these things for the sake of this village"

"No she doesn't!" I screamed. I was so angry at him. He promised to keep it a secret always. Forever. I calmed down and whispered. "I don't want to be alone again…" Kakashi looked at me with sympathy in his eyes.

"No one but Tsundae has to know. Not even Shizune" he said.

"But no one will come near me again, Tsundae won't want me in this village…" with that I couldn't bear to hear the rest of the conversation and ran from the building running towards the woods that I had only been in earlier that day. What could I do? I didn't have any other choice; it wasn't like they would want me there after they found out anyway. What was the point? Why was I even _born_? My life was built on destruction and guilt. They say there are others like me. They say there are nine of us altogether. I don't know whether I believe that. But at the moment I feel alone. So very, very alone.

I was now outside the village, running for all I was worth into a different wood to the one I had been earlier. I had to run in the direction of the one from earlier so if Kakashi asked people if they had seen me they would say that I had gone into the training forest. But I hadn't. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know this wood. I better had get to know it or I can't use it to my advantage.

I stopped in between two trees and walked to the one on my right. I put my hand against it and closed my eyes. My hand started to go blue. I began to talk to the tree.

"_Excuse me, where is the core tree?" _I asked the tree.

"_He is about quarter of a mile from here my child; may I ask who are you? I haven't talked to anyone but my fellow plants since the earth demon" _replied the tree. That's the thing about trees. People believe that they can't talk, or see or have feelings, but they are so very wrong just like they are about plants. They are the most intelligent and kind beings on this planet.

"_My name is Terra. I don't quite know how I can talk to you, but I can and I am so very grateful for this gift" _actually, that was a lie I did know how I could talk to them. But I wasn't going to say that. _Please, tell me, was the earth demon evil?"_ I was curious about this earth demon. It sounded evil, but it could talk to nature.

"_Yes, it was to a certain extent my dear. But to us it was not. To nature and the elements of this earth, it could be called a saint. It hated humans for what they were doing to us so it wreaked havoc on villages, of course before he was sealed he made human friends but they could not protect him nor sway the feelings of those who wished to seal him. The humans who he loved and cherished were killed protecting him and he was sealed into the earth. Except one day he found a child with the feelings of those who protected him, yet to be born…." _The tree stopped talking to me.

"_What's wrong?" _I asked. She had just stopped talking in the middle of a sentence.

"_Someone's here. Not a very nice someone. They wield powers and one of them uses the wind, the other uses sand. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you apart from they are searching for someone, and my dear, I have a feeling it's you. Please get to the core tree so you can use the powers of this forest. My name is Orchird. Go with my blessing!"_ I said thank you to the tree and did as she said I began running searching for the core tree for quarter of a mile then stopped to check. Oh, I forgot. The core tree is like the main tree of a forest. It's like ninjas have hokages trees have cores. Like I said they are more intelligent than people give them credit for. I ran and ran to find the core tree.

Authoress: Tut tut running away…. May I remind you kinds it is not a good thing to do! But R&Ring is a good thing to do!


	5. Chapter 5 Fighting a Lost Cause

Disclaimer: How many times do I need to say this…

Authoress: I'll do it!

Disclaimer but it's my jo….

Authoress: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF THE NARUTO CHARECTERS!

Disclaimer: well that's one way to put it…

**Chapter 5**

I got to the core tree and had a quick talk saying that I was a child of the earth and asked to be able to borrow the powers of the earth. He asked me with whose blessing and I said Orchird's. He accepted me and sent me on my way with his own blessing. His name was Vine. He was one of the oldest trees I have ever met.

A whooshing of air and I knew I was no longer alone. I moved to the left and a kunai went straight past my ear. I had to get away from the core tree. I ran for about five minutes before stopping in a small circle clearing with trees in a ring around me.

I stopped and closed my eyes listening hard for movements. Suddenly I felt something tickle my knee. I looked down and saw some kind of sand wrapped round my leg all the way up to my knee. It began to tighten but before it could I flipped backwards and it just clutched air. Behind me came a whistling noise. Kunais. But they went either side of me and struck a tree. Luckily at the direction of the sunlight I could see that there was string either side of them and ducked before they could tighten around me. Suddenly came a great force of wind. This wasn't ordinary wind though. The only way to cancel this out before it through me back into the tree was to use some of my own power. I held my arm out and shouted.

"Mizu staff!" a long blue light with to bolts of lightning in a cross shape on the end appeared then materialised into a silver staff. I swung it like a baton around my head and while swinging it moved it in front of me. It was impossible to see where the staff began and my hands ended it was moving so fast. Suddenly I stopped it in two hands and held it horizontally it sent a pulse through the air ripping up a wind equal in power to the one that had been sent at me. They cancelled each other out.

"Okay, you've had your fun! Now come out!" I yelled. I saw three figures move quickly through the trees the suddenly they were in front of me. They were three sand ninjas. The same ones as I had seen that day I was in the hospital. "Well, glad you decided to show yourself, but what do you want with me?" they were a weird looking bunch. One of them had red hair and a gourd which judging by the attacks was filled with sand. His eyes are what drew me the most. Round and clear blue they showed the same loneliness I had felt once, but the look in the eyes looked like it was draining away. Slowly but surely. The girl had blonde hair in four bunches on the back of her head. She had a massive fan and was obviously the one that had caused the wind. And the last was a boy with purple markings on his face and was all in black with a wrapped up puppet on his back. The blonde girl talked.

"I'm Temari, this is Gaara and Kankuro" When I looked at the red headed boy named Gaara I noticed the sign love tattooed on his forehead. He began to speak

"We're here on a search, find and return mission" I looked at him now beginning to get worried. _They can't be after me_ I thought. Kankuro began to finish what the others had started.

"Kakashi and the Hokage are missing you," he said sarcastically. That's it; I'm out of here.

"Well, if you catch me" I looked at the three and smiled "I'll go back with no struggle, if you can't, then I don't go home. Got it?" Temari smiled.

"We know all about the powers you use. They say you're a child of the earth. All though you use the elements as well. Only three of your powers have been seen used. Your 'rock wind' used on Lee. Your vines on Tenten, and your wind attack, which we have had the pleasure of being the first to see" she smirked like it was something big. God, it's not like powers were unusual or anything. Apart from that I had many more that she didn't know, of course I don't feel like revealing them unless I have to, but just to let them no I don't really want to be caught, I'll show them a new trick especially for them.

"Right well, fancy seeing a new trick?" I didn't give them time to answer. My staff disappeared. I let their eyes linger on me for a moment wondering what I was going to do.

I raised my right arm in front of me, and there appeared a bow made of fire. In my left hand appeared an arrow made from electricity. They all new what would happen and so they jumped into a tree. Like that would help. I knocked the arrow and aimed it at the tree the girl was in. She would be the most trouble some to me. I don't think they realised what I was doing because they didn't move from their respective trees. The arrow flew from the bow and struck the tree in the middle; Temari's tree. For a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly without warning the tree was covered by electricity, shocking everything and anything in the tree, Temari included. She fell out and landed with a thud on the ground. Kankuro quickly ran to her aid. I took advantage of this by knocking another arrow. I fired it without hesitation straight at Kankuro. A direct hit would kill him, but if you want a fight with me, this is what you get. Suddenly a shield of sand appeared and protected them from the electricity of the arrow. I cursed under my breath.

"Kankuro you go on! I'll deal with Temari!" yelled Gaara and jumped down from the tree. Kankuro pulled out a puppet from behind him and controlled it with chakra strings.

"You can't kill me" I said smirking "so how can you use your puppets? They're _designed_ to kill" Kankuro just smiled back in return to my smirk.

"There _is_ such thing as sleeping poison" shit. If I got caught by that I would be asleep in a matter of minutes. 3 at most, but giving that it's me, I'd give my self six minutes, tops.

I turned round and began to run. Straight ahead, into thicker forest. I eventually stopped after about three minutes and stood still. Listening, waiting for him to attack. Unfortunately for me, sand ninja aren't dumb. I walked over to a tree and placed my hand on it. My hand began to glow blue and suddenly I was in the tree, using it to search for Kankuro. Before I had a chance to see everything properly I saw to poisoned needles heading straight for me, one either side. I jumped into the tree, and of course, that's when I realised I had fallen straight into his trap.

I looked around to see wires everywhere. One move and I would trigger it. To avoid getting hit by them I would have to find a way out. Just to make matters worse, there were two of his puppets. One on my left one on my right. Oh god. These wires weren't meant for me to trigger, it was… for them. I looked at the puppets and they were getting closer and closer to the wire. If one of them were snapped, they would all head straight toward me. All around me were needles, Kunais and shrukens all covered in sleeping poison, ready to hit me, and there was _no_ way out. Unless...

"Hey! Kankuro?" I shouted swivelling round on the spot. "You know if you let all of these go at once, I'll be killed?" I heard a voice coming from behind me.

"Yeah." I quickly turned round to see him standing smugly on a tree branch about five metres from me. "That's why I'm not letting all of them together." He smirked. _God, what is he thinking?_ I thought. Well this was no time to be thinking about that. I knew how to get out of this I just had to concentrate. I closed my eyes and began thinking words in my head.

_To give up a sense,_

_Is to heighten the others,_

_Give me power,_

_Take my sight,_

_And give me sixth._

I opened my eyes but couldn't see anything but black until… something blue whizzed towards me I jumped out of the way feeling that I had struck more strings under my feet. The blue thing was the movement of a kunai flying through the air at me. I had taken away my sight to be able to sense in sound and movement, the where about's of the enemy. If anything moved I'd see it.

I was right; I had stepped on more strings several more blue things whizzed towards me. I dodged them. Now every time I moved more came flying towards me. I wonder what it would have looked like it I wasn't in this mode?

Authoress: She's making friends again! … Sweat drop okay kids, fighting is NOT a good thing! But.. R&Ring is! Get to it!


	6. Chapter 6 Dreamless Sleep

Disclaimer: Naruto no owned by authoress…

Authoress: sorry we had to get a replacement disclaimer today as my original disclaimer is sick…

Disclaimer: Naruto no owned by authoress…

**Chapter 6**

(Terra)

_This is crazy!_ Thought Kankuro. _She should be out cold, but she's dodging every single needle, kunai and shrunken that is flying her way!_ That's right. Outside of my mode, there were at least fifty weapons coming at me at once. This had been going for about two minutes. I was cart wheeling, flipping, back flipping, dodging, jumping and ducking to avoid every needle until finally it seemed like it had stopped. I came out of blue mode and looked around. Carelessly I let my guard down. It wasn't until too late a needle came flying towards me. I heard it at the last minute and quickly moved sideways. It was no good. It grazed my skin causing an open wound but sped straight ahead into a tree. _Shit!_ I thought. Now I only have six minutes to get out of here. I heard a laugh and looked round.

"Pretty impressive" grinned Kankuro "But you let your guard down to soon Terra."

"Yeah well I may have let _my_ guard down" I said a small smile pulling at my lips "but then again. So did you" quickly putting my hands together my fingers locked and began to glow a fire red colour. I looked behind Kankuro at the fire dragon I had summoned. A dragon made of fire was behind him, it was just like the myths. Big, scaly and able to breathe fire. Except this one _was_ fire. He looked behind him and tried to jump out of the way but it was too late. With a flick of its massive tail Kankuro was out cold. The dragon disappeared and I fell to my knees breathing heavily. The poison was kicking in. I had to get away from here. Fast, before _he_ came, and for some reason I felt like that was a _really_ bad thing.

From far off Gaara saw the big fire dragon appear and knew that Kankuro was no longer able to fight. He had called another team to collect his sister; Temari, and so it seemed Kankuro too would be getting picked up. Gaara ran towards where he saw the dragon disappear in hope of finding the mysterious girl named Terra.

I have to find somewhere safe. I was running as far as I could. 1 minute had already passed. As I was running through the trees they began to thin out until there were none. All there was, was… a cliff edge. I looked down and saw a river flowing through the canyon. I followed it with my eyes until I saw a meadow full of lush green grass._ That's where I have to go._ I thought. Suddenly I felt something tickling my ankle. I looked down. _Sand._ I quickly jumped up and twisted in the air landing squarely on the ground facing the trees. Facing him. Facing Gaara.

Straight away I could see he had no emotion on his face. A calm façade. How do I know it was fake? His eyes told all.

"You're going to be asleep in a matter of minutes, let's fight before you do" he asked me.

"I can't fight you" the look in his eyes was the same as mine. It had known true loneliness, pain and suffering. Straight away I could tell, straight away, I knew. He was… like me. "I just can't" without looking I started walking backwards, getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Hey watch out!" he called. Too late. I stepped off the edge of the cliff. As I was falling I saw him peer over the edge of the cliff sending his sand to catch me. Hah. Like I'd let him. Suddenly vines shot out the sides of the cliffs catching my wrists. I jumped from vine to vine to avoid his sand. I was getting closer and closer to the river. Suddenly one of my vines broke. _Damn! I must be out of reach of the forest!_ The other one snapped and I began falling towards the river. Sleep was overtaking me, but I had to get to the meadow.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the river I was falling towards. Suddenly a giant hand made from water appeared and caught me. It started to sink back into the water letting me land harmlessly on the surface of the river. I floated in down the river until I started to sink because I couldn't control myself any more. I sank suddenly not expecting it. Under the water I felt at complete calm and time itself had stopped. It felt so like it would be so much easier if I just let myself be taken by the currents of the water… but I can't give up yet. I swam to the surface and pulled myself out of the water. I was in the meadow. I was safe. I stood up and walked about two paces until I collapsed and let sleep take over my body.

Authoress: See what happens when you get into a fight? God… R&R Puppy dog eyes Pwease?


	7. Chapter 7 Akakuroi clan

Disclaimer: Naruto is not owned by her but the Akakuroi clan and Terra is.

Authoress: so there! You can't sue me! Mwahaha!

Disclaimer:… Oo

**Chapter 7**

The girl, now in a deep sleep, was oblivious to her surroundings and what was going on around her. Just in front of her about twenty metres away was something she was very unaware of. She should have checked before she had collapsed, should have noticed, but she didn't. Maybe if she had she could have concealed herself. No. She couldn't of. Even with her power the sleeping poison had sucked every last bit of energy from her.

In front of the girl the long buttercup filled grass rustled. Twenty or so people began to stand up. One of the men at the front walked forward. He was black and heavily muscled. Wearing black trousers and a black top with red lining he looked like he could be part of a secret service, but no, he was from the Akakuroi clan, Aka for short. If translated it be something along the lines of red-black.

"Oi! Dustin!" yelled the black guy. A white guy with black shorts and a scruffy red t-shirt drew up beside him.

"What?" he looked at the girl, battered and bruised with cuts here and there. "Hey isn't this the…" the big black guy nodded. "Rick, we're gonna have to kill her. It's revenge"

"Yeah, I'll tell the others" Rick picked up the girl and slung her over his shoulder. He turned around and faced the other twenty people around him. "Everyone! Gather round!" everyone took a few steps forward. One thing about this gang was they seemed to be all males dressed in clothing with nothing except red and black. Another thing was that there were two people at the back of everyone that were shadows. Hidden from view, you can only guess that they were both male and part of this clan.

"This is what we have been searching for! This is the revenge we have been waiting for! Let us strike now!" he punched one hand into the air. A great 'hoorah!' followed his fist movement. Suddenly all went quiet.

"Hey Rick" said Dustin. "We have a visitor" Dustin smirked at the red haired boy, like he was a bug, just waiting to be squashed.

"Please" said the boy in a tone that had no emotion, which matched his expression, no emotion. "Return Terra" Everyone laughed at this.

"You think after all these years we are going to return the 'great' Terra, to you?" jeered Rick. "Tell me, what is your name boy?"

"I am Gaara of the desert, and I am here to take Terra home"

"Say Gaara," said Dustin in a questioning tone "Do you know what Terra is"

"A person?" retorted Gaara getting bored of this child's play.

"No" replied Dustin suddenly getting very serious. "She's a monster…" those words rang in Gaara's head bringing back many unwanted memories.

"You don't even know her" accused Gaara.

"Oh we know her alright" said Rick "She destroyed our village and killed all of the women, we know her better than you can imagine" Gaara was getting fed up now.

"I don't want to hear your stories, just hand over Terra and I won't hurt you"

"You think you're up to it kid? C'mon then! You win and you can have her back" everyone behind Rick began smirking. Rick walked to the middle of Gaara and himself and put the sleeping Terra down. He then walked back to where he was standing and signalled to everyone to get back. Everyone suddenly disappeared then popped up again about twenty metres away.

Everything was silent. Gaara was displaying no emotion on his face while Rick was sneering. Rick raised his hand and brought it down in an arc. Needles of ice went zooming toward the sleeping Terra and the wide awake Gaara. A wall of sand appeared before Terra making Gaara and her disappear from site for a brief second. But in that brief second Gaara had made a hand from sand and grabbed Terra placing her by his feet.

"Normally I would just leave with my prize" said Gaara "But I don't like you" Rick snorted.

"Kid, I wouldn't let you go if you even tried!" A small smile appeared at the corners of Gaara's mouth. Rick jumped into the air and began to spin around and around. The sky started to turn black. The more he spun the blacker the sky became. Suddenly with no warning icicles like needles came from the sky like rain. Gaara had barely any time to react before they hit the ground. Sand, dirt and flowers flew into the air in a mess. Nothing was seen. The people who had retreated earlier were now all laughing.

"There's no way they survived that!"

"There dead for sure now!" they were shouting. Everything went silent when the dust cloud cleared.

Rick landed on the ground just in time to see what was happening. As the dust cloud disappeared he began to see a big round figure emerging from it. When everything had cleared the smirk disappeared from his face.

"What?" he cried. A great shell made from sand was in the middle of the battle field. Suddenly it all crumbled revealing an untouched Terra and Gaara. Gaara wasted no time in deciding his fate. His sand quickly went to work. It went straight towards Rick and wrapped itself around him. When he was completely covered by sand without an inch of skin showing, Gaara raised his hand in front of him. He clenched his fist and the sand collapsed inwards with spurts of blood escaping.

"Desert funeral" he whispered. The sand melted away leaving nothing behind but shredded clothes. He picked Terra up with his sand and turned around beginning to walk away.

_Kankuro said that the poison keeps the person asleep for an hour or two depending on how strong the persons will is. She's been asleep for about ten minutes now. No matter how strong she is she won't wake up for at least another fifty minutes. _Gaara thought. Suddenly two figures appeared in front of him.

He stared at them like they were worth no more than the dirt on his shoes. The silhouetted figures seemed to be smiling, but as they were in the shadows you couldn't tell. The two stepped forward and revealed their identities.

One was a man. He was wearing green combat trousers with a black t-shirt and black wrist gloves. His hair was short and black and he wore black sunglasses with a cigarette in his mouth. On his right shoulder was a ring like thing which on the top half had spikes that reached slightly above his head.

It was the next person that came as a surprise. It was a woman. She had a headband with four lines with a scratch down the middle on her arm. She was wearing a red tank top and short black shorts. Her shoes were black boots with red laces that came up to her knees. Her hair was long and black. Her eyes were red and looked like they had seen a lot.

"Kid, if you had won, you wouldn't be standing here in front of us" said the man. "Just so you know I'm Cliff and that's Ren. Now if you would kindly give us back what we found"

"Yes" Ren added "you see she has caused us a lot of trouble, killing families and destroying the village. She isn't exactly the nicest person in the world. I'm sure if she was awake we couldn't get any where near her but now she has carelessly fallen asleep it would be easier to kill her"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you" said Gaara in his emotionless way "but I have been told to bring her back _alive_" Terra began to stir. Gaara put her down on the ground. _This can't be happening! She should be out for another forty or fifty minutes yet!_ Thought Gaara. Terra sat up and blinked a few times.

"Huh? What's going on? Who are…" she stopped abruptly. Upon seeing the two people her eyes widened and she stood up. "But... you… you're suppose to be dead!" she shouted. _What? So it's true, she is exactly what I thought she was…_ Gaara looked at Terra on the floor and gazed deep in thought.

Authoress: Violence is BAD! Violence is BAD! Come on say it with me, violence is BA…. GOOD! Review! Review! Review!


	8. Chapter 8 Sandy Love

Disclaimer: nope she still doesn't own Naruto…

Authoress: but I now own Gaara's sock! Mwahaha! Gaara is the love of my life…

Disclaimer: Sorry to disappoint you but Gaara doesn't wear socks…

Authoress: Bawls eyes out

**Chapter 8**

(Terra)

I can't believe this! I thought they had died! Actually right now I should be worrying about the situation I'm in. I slowly tried to get to my feet but fell back onto my knees. Damn! I realised there was someone was behind me.

"You!" I cried. He just looked at me the way he looked at everything else. "I thought I had got rid of you!" I was starting to get angry. I stood up quickly without even thinking about the pain shooting through my body.

"Hey princess" Ren called "Has your conscience caught up with you?"

"Obviously not" I smirked.

"As fun as this is catching up" said Cliff. "Now you're awake it's two on two so I suggest we get this fight underway"

"What are you scared Cliff?" I mocked.

"Oh, I'm surprised" he said in a sarcastic voice "You remembered my name, I am honoured"

"Yeah, I'm sure you are" I was about to say more when I felt a hand on my arm. I looked back and Gaara looked at me in a 'let's get this over and done with' way. I nodded.

"Seems like your boyfriend there is the one who is scared" Ren smirked.

"For your information…" I started.

"It's not worth it" Gaara interrupted.

"Fine. Lets do this, I've got Cliff" I said.

"Do what you want" said Gaara. He was so very comforting and social. Not.

"I'll tell you what" smiled Ren "let's watch these two fight first and then we'll fight" Gaara looked at Ren and just nodded. Huh. I guess he liked attention.

Cliff and I took a couple of paces towards each other. Gaara and Ren got a safe distance back from us but were still able to see us and intervene if needed. Cliff made the first move.

"Ready to die Terra?"

"Nope" I said simply. He looked at me, annoyed then took a step forward; towards me. A yellow ball of energy was collecting in his hand. I stood still waiting for him to run. Behind my back I was gathering a ball of lightning. I smiled to myself.

"What are you smiling about? Happy that you are going to die?" Cliff shouted at me. He ran towards me, carelessly, not even wondering what I had behind my back. I started to run towards him. We were now both running. Cliff still hadn't noticed. At this rate he was dead.

"Cliff!" I heard Ren shout "Watch out behind her back" crap! That's cheating. We came towards each other. I put my hand out in front of me. It looked as if we were about to crash when I somersaulted over him quickly turning round to hit him in the back. He was quicker than when I last met him. Our attacks met each others and went up with a bang. The explosion threw us both back quite away. Cliff was the first back on his feet. He ran towards me.

"Spear Rain!" he shouted. From above me yellow energy sticks in the shapes of spears began falling towards me.

"Shit!" I said. Still laying on the floor there wasn't much I could do. Or so they thought. Suddenly from the ground came millions of my vines. Every time one of the spears came towards me one of my vines knocked it off course. I slowly began to stand up with the vines working furiously either side me. Without Cliff noticing I called up a special vine that was used for piercing almost anything and everything. It went straight towards him. He was too busy concentrating on the spears. Closer and closer it got until…

"CLIFF!" it went straight through his stomach. The spears stopped falling as Cliff fell to his knees. He started smiling.

"What are you smiling at?" I asked. "You're dead" His smile just got bigger.

"That's what you think" I looked at him puzzled. Without warning Cliff turned into a log.

"No way…" I whispered. Behind me right next to my ear was a voice.

"Yes way" Cliff had a Kunai to my throat, standing right behind me. "This is what I have been waiting for, revenge" he growled.

"Don't get cocky now!" I said in a sarcastic voice. He stopped smiling obviously puzzled at my light tone. Taking a risk I quickly crouched down to the floor, clenched both my fists and hit them on the ground. The ground split like a creator straight in between his legs. He had to jump away from me while I jumped away from him. Now facing each other I thought I'd finish it. I put my hand out in front of my stomach. I closed my eyes and my hand began glowing blue. Rocks broke out from the ground forming a circle around me. I raised my hand above my head the rocks circling my hand. I raised my other hand and put my hands together above my head. I quickly jerked my hands apart splitting the one rock circle into two. One circling each hand. Every where I put my hands the rocks followed. Cliff looked at me and grinned.

"Lame, you still using those pieces of junk?" Ren called out to me.

"Haven't you learnt any new tricks since we last saw you Terra?" I just smiled. They were laughing now, but I was a lot more adept than when they last saw me. Cliff ran at me. He went to punch me and I just moved the rocks to intercept it. He cried out in pain flying backwards. I smirked.

"Yeah, sorry to disappoint you it's the same old lame tricks" I said sarcastically. Ren looked at me stunned. Cliff was on the floor groaning in pain.

"She shattered the bone in my hand!" cried Cliff. I was bored. I raised both my hands above my head and clapped them together. The rocks crashed together turning into gravel. The gravel was now being controlled by my right hand. I pointed my hand forward. The stones rushed towards Cliff covering him like a shell.

"What is this?" Whispered Ren. Of course this _was_ a new trick. I began to clench my fist and you could here Cliff screaming. The stones were crushing him.

_This is the same as my desert funeral technique. _Thought Gaara. I suddenly clenched my fist and a great scream filled the air. The stones had completely crushed him. The stones fell to the ground blood stained. There was nothing of Cliff left except his clothes. I was breathing heavily.

"CLIFF! NO!" screamed Ren. I walked over to Gaara.

"Your turn" I said barely being able to keep myself upright.

"I take it that last move took a lot out of you" I just nodded and collapsed to my knees. Gaara walked forward taking up his place to fight Ren. I sat back on my haunches as Gaara and Ren took up their places.

"So, Gaara of the Desert, why is it you want to protect this monster?" Ren looked at me. Why did she always have to spoil everything? I didn't want Gaara to know.

"The only monster I see here is you" said Gaara back. Phew. At least he didn't take what she was saying to heart.

"Well then, since you don't know what I'm talking about I'll show you". Instead of attacking Gaara she attacked me. Yellow whips seem to appear out of her back and went straight for me. I couldn't move since I was exhausted.

"Shit!" I put my arm over my eyes automatically but didn't feel anything. I looked up and there was a wall of sand in front of me. Gaara.

"Your fight is with me, not her" he said.

"Oh, you wish" The whips drew back to Ren. They were behind her. She put her arms out by the side of her. She looked like she was about to pretend she was a plane. Two whips; one each arm, wrapped around her arm. They began to squeeze then quickly ripped of leaving deep cuts and a lot of blood. _No way, she can't be. Not many people have that power; the last person to have it would be Ren!_ I thought.

"I heard about your little brush with Itachi, dear Terra." Ren smirked. The blood on her arms began to form into arms with hands. They raced towards me. It was like I had gone back to that night and was experiencing it all over again. Gaara put up a sand wall for me again but the hands shot straight through grabbing my neck and forcing me to the ground. Rapidly they let go. I looked up and Gaara was sending his sand rain attack at her. He had a shield of sand around him and from it came shots of sand. Ren had a shield of blood up. I was frozen in fear. I couldn't move at all.

Gaara stopped attacking and made his way so he was directly behind me.

"Isn't that sweet" laughed Ren "two pathetic beings trying to stand against a goddess," she laughed manically. Her blood hands came rushing at Gaara and me. I tried to stand up, tried to help; but like with parents I'm just not strong enough. No. I can't think like that. I stood up in front of Gaara.

"Leave him out of it" I said. I threw my hands up above my head and out from the ground came a wall of water. The blood couldn't get through it. It would just be washed away. I kept the wall up but didn't realise the blood hands coming around the side they grabbed one of my ankles and dragged me around to the other side. I quickly put the wall down so Gaara could see what was going on. He couldn't do anything. His attacks were too violent, they would get me too.

As I hung upside down one of the blood hands turned into the form of a knife. I froze. This time I really couldn't move. Fear took over my body. She put the knife near my arm. My limbs felt like lead weights, my blood felt like it had frozen in my veins and my brain had gone numb and stopped working.

"I'm going to do this slowly so I enjoy it." Ren sneered. She cut into my arm slowly getting deeper and then dragged it. I now had a horizontal cut. I didn't show any sign of pain. It could have been because I was frozen in fear, but no it was because I was stubborn. She moved it to my leg and started cutting that.

After 10 minutes I had two cuts on my face and multiple cuts on my arms and legs.

"Now I have had my fun" sneered Ren "Time to enter the other world Terra" to tell you the truth I don't think I would really have minded dying but they say if you aren't killed one day there's something worth waiting for. As she put the blood to my throat I closed my eyes. Just as she was about to slit my throat I felt myself being wrenched upwards. I opened my eyes to see two blood hands clutching my arms. I was now the right way up.

"Why!" she screamed "Why do you not say anything? Do you not feel pain? Do you not feel fear? You are a MONSTER!" I just smiled. That made her completely mad. She chucked me so hard I thought my head would roll of my shoulders. I slammed into a tree and landed on my hands and knees after sliding down the tree on my back. I coughed up blood. I fell back so I was being propped up by the tree. I can't do anymore. I thought. I can't move. The pain was so intense. And she was right, I am a monster. I don't have the right to live. I crawled forward up to Gaara then sat down and dragged my knees up to my chest.

"You don't have to see this you know" he just looked at me the way he looked at everything else. "You can go, I know you don't care if I live or die, and I don't want you getting hurt for someone you don't care about, actually you should be angry at me. I hurt your friends and..." he looked at me a little differently then looked up. What was the point? I just stopped talking. Suddenly Ren sent her hands straight at us. Gaara acted quickly encasing us in a sand shield. It felt like I was in a cave. It was dark and all I could see was Gaara.

At that moment I began to feel all different emotions rush at me. The pain of losing my parents, the sadness of being alone, the loneliness of my life, the hatred of who I was, and the sympathy for others like me. I started to get a prickling sensation behind my eyes and didn't trust my self to speak. I willed for the tears to go away. I would not be weak and cry. Without warning my eyes blurred but no tears began to streak down this monster's face. I took my hands away from my knees and put my legs down. I knelt on the floor of sand and stare at the floor. Suddenly I felt a hand under my chin. It cupped my face and turned my head. I was now looking at Gaara who was crouched down looking straight into my eyes. The tears still refused to come, this emotion stubborn and bent on not appearing, and to be honest I appreciate it.

"Terra, listen to me. I know what you are. You're a demon tail" my eyes widened in surprise. How did he know? That's it, now I have lost another person. My eyes were downcast. "Look at me" when I looked at him, I saw something in his eyes I had never seen before. His eyes looked so… caring.

"Terra, you don't need to run away from who you are. I know the pain and loneliness you have had to cope with"

"How?" I shouted "How can anyone know?" he looked at me with pity in his eyes.

"I know, because I am one too" I took a sharp intake of breath. "Terra, you are an independent girl, but no matter how independent there are always going to be people that want to protect you. You don't have to be alone, not everyone is scared of you, of _us_." I looked deep, deeper into his eyes than I have ever looked, and I knew, in that moment, I had fallen in love. "Terra, lets show this women what we're all about" I gave a quick nod as I stood up and Gaara went back to his emotionless self. The sand shield dissolved around us.

Authoress: Melts Gaara is sooo very hawt! On behalf of Gaara's hotness I ask you to Review!


	9. Chapter 9 A Moment In Time

Disclaimer: she doesn't own nar…

Authoress: I OWN NARUTO!

Disclaimer: no you don't

Authoress: don't I?

Disclaimer: Have you banged your head again?

Authoress: I don't remember…

**Chapter 9**

(Gaara)

As soon as I had taken my shield away from us Ren's hands were already waiting for us. She didn't seem too bothered about me though. She twisted them around Terra like ropes. Before I could do anything she dragged Terra to her.

"Now then, how should I kill your boyfriend in front of you" laughed Ren.

"He's not my boyfriend" Terra answered "And you're not going to kill him!" Water seemed to burst from Terra's hands washing the blood from her. She landed with a thud on the floor and quickly got back up. She turned and smiled at me. This girl had so much inner strength, yet a minute ago she was so unhappy.

"You insolent monster!" shrieked Ren. One of her blood hands went to hit Terra. It caught Terra square in the stomach and she was thrown back into a tree, instantly unconscious. Ren moved forward with the intent to kill.

"That's abit unfair" I said.

"Stay out of this!" Ren yelled. "You know nothing!" at that moment she paused and froze. She looked down at her legs. My sand was encasing her body. Before she could say or do anything I encased her whole body.

"Desert funeral" I clenched my fist and for a moment waited. The sand returned to my gourd and there was nothing left of her. I picked up Terra and began to go home. All the Aka clan seemed to just have disappeared. I took my leave wanting to get back to Konoha to see Kankuro and Temari. Strange, it took so long to fight, to work up to this moment and then when the moment finally arrives it disappears so swiftly. Death really is something mysterious.

Disclaimer: Sorry, Terra-kun hit her head… she will be back… soon. Till them please R&R.


	10. Chapter 10 Blacked Out Bridge

Authoress: I'm back! My head hurts though…

Disclaimer: and Terra-kun still doesn't own Naruto…

Authoress: But I will! I will take over the Naruto world! Manic Laughter

Disclaimer: maybe her head isn't quite back to normal then…

**Chapter 10**

(Terra)

I woke up in this time, not quite so unfamiliar surroundings. I was back in the hospital. Great. My life was _so_ unbelievably predictable. I got up and slid by the sliding doors. I jumped down into the street. I started to walk back to my flat.

When I got home I opened the door and was met with a great surprise.

"Hakura!" I cried. A husky dog jumped up and licked my face. He got back down and went into the kitchen. I followed him there now fully aware of my own rumbling stomach. Hakura was my husky. I loved him and he followed me everywhere. To be honest with all that has happened I had completely forgotten about him. Boy that made me feel bad. On the night my parents were killed he was sleeping under my bed.

As I walked over to my fridge with Hakura standing by the side of it, I heard a cup being put down on a sideboard. I turned round quickly with my fists raised.

"Kakashi! You scared me!" I lowered my hands. So that's why Hakura didn't growl. Kakashi just looked at me coldly. Oh great, so I just got out of hospital and this is how he treats me. Oh yeah. Then I remembered. I had run away.

"You're out of hospital early"

"Kakashi I'm sorry, it's just… wait a minute! Why am I saying sorry!" I shouted at him. Suddenly the tables had turned and he was the one feeling bad. "You told her didn't you? And now thanks to you I bet she wants me to leave, and never…"

"No she doesn't" Kakashi cut in. I looked at him quizzically. "She said she will be happy to have you here. There will be no one watching you, tagging you, spying on you. Whatever. You're now a member of this village" suddenly I realised why Kakashi hade decided to become a member of this village. Everyone was so forgiving and nice.

"Okay, I'm…"

"Forget about it" said Kakashi. "Anyway why are you out of hospital early?" I looked at my feet. Kakashi sighed. "Oh well, not much we can do now" then I remembered something.

"What happened to Gaara and his team mates?" I felt bad hurting Temari, and especially Kankuro.

"I hear you summoned a fire dragon. Kankuro was quite badly hurt you know, and as for Temari, well she's a tough girl she'll be fine." Again, I was looking at my feet. Hakura whimpered. I walked over to a cupboard and got out some dog food. I squeezed the tin and the lid popped off. I grabbed his bowl from the cupboard under the sink; put it on the floor then put the meat into it. Hakura fell upon it hungrily.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Training. Tomorrow 7:15am. At the bridge. Got it?" I nodded. Kakashi walked out and I followed him out with Hakura having finished his dinner trotting happily behind me. I closed the door and locked it.

"Well see you later, I'm taking Hakura for a walk" Kakashi turned round to face me. He brushed a piece of hair from my face.

"Terra, you know, if you have anything you want to know, or say, just come to me, okay?" I nodded and gave him a hug.

"Thank you" I whispered. He pulled away and turned to leave.

"Remember, 7:15am" I groaned at the thought of getting up so early. He smiled and left.

"C'mon Hakura, it's just me and you now." I began to walk through the streets until I got to the woods.

The woods were quiet and peaceful. Just the way I liked it. I jumped onto a tree branch with Hakura following me. We jumped and jumped until I started to hear the sound of water gushing. We came to a massive waterfall. I jumped down from the tree and Hakura launched himself into the water. I laughed at his eagerness. We both loved the water. I started to get unchanged. When I was changed I was wearing my tight black shorts that I always wore under my skirt and a black bikini top. I dived into the water perfectly, leaving no splash. I resurfaced taking a big gulp of air and brushing my now wet hair from my face. I surface dived into the water once more and swam underneath. Under the water it was so peaceful. I scraped along the sandy bottom of the river and twirled around and around. At that moment I felt at peace with the world. I resurfaced and took a breath. Hakura was splashing around having great fun. I took a step and began to walk on the water like it was solid ground. This was nothing special. Everyone who could mould chakra could do it; the weird thing was that I didn't use chakra. I walked over to the waterfall and let the water cascade around my shoulders, the water flowing down my body in rivulets. I suddenly became aware of someone else there. I stepped out from the waterfall and casually came over to the side and got changed. I whistled to Hakura. I walked over to the tree that my 'watcher' was.

"You can come down now" I said. Nothing moved. "If you don't get your perverted ass down here right now, I'll come and drag it down here". Suddenly a blur of orange fell from the tree. "You?" I whispered under my breath. Suddenly a blur of blue followed him. I nearly froze up at the site of him, and then Gaara's words came to my mind.

_Terra, you don't need to run away from who you are_

I laughed as they picked them selves up. Naruto and Sasuke. They looked at me. I stopped laughing and tried to look serious. I was laughing so hard inside.

"So what are you perverts doing?" before I realised what was happening, I noticed them looking at Hakura. He was growling. Naruto and Sasuke were looking at Hakura warily. I had to make sure that Hakura knew they were friends.

"We were asked to keep a tag on you" said Sasuke cooly. So Kakashi lied. Oh well. I guess it's only for a while. I put my hand out and smiled. Naruto took it and shook it. Hakura stopped growling. I started to laugh again. They looked at me like I was mad.

"Sorry, but that's a lame excuse" they looked at me bewildered. "I'm just joking" I said smiling. "So what now?"

"We were asked to take you to where we are training tomorrow" said Naruto. I nodded. We jumped into the trees. Naruto behind me, Sasuke in front of me and Hakura by my side. After a while I began to feel dizzy. I stumbled and nearly fell. I stopped and knelt down to catch my breath while Hakura barked to let Sasuke and Naruto know what was going on. Sasuke turned round.

"Hey, are you alright?" he began walking towards me. I flinched as he got nearer. I still wasn't fully used to him yet. He stopped and looked at me.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just felt a bit dizzy. I'm okay now" I stood up and looked behind me. "Umm… where's Naruto?" I asked. Sasuke sighed.

"I thought I heard someone fall out of a tree…" he mumbled. I knelt down next to Hakura and looked into his eyes.

"Listen boy. I need you to find Naruto and lead him to where Sasuke and I are going. Make sure he's not in trouble okay?" I stroked him. Hakura gave an appreciative bark and ran back from the direction we came in. Sasuke and I ran on for about five minutes and arrived at our destination.

It was a wooden bridge over a massive gorge. I walked onto the bridge and perched on one of the sides. Sasuke leaned against the banister.

"Wow, it's pretty stunning" I said. Sasuke didn't say anything. Suddenly I started to feel dizzy again. Everything was going black, but before I blacked out I heard someone shouting and something cracking.

Authoress: Poor Terra… she's always in trouble. My name is like hers. Mine is Terra-kun and hers is Terra… weird isn't it?

Disclaimer: her head defiantly isn't back to normal… so can I just say please R&R.

Authoress: What does that stand for? Rabbit Rabies?

Disclaimer: Sweat drop

-3-


	11. Chapter 11 Saved By The Lost

Disclaimer: Terra-kun asks me to apologize for any erratic behaviour and to say that she does not own Naruto… yet.

**Chapter 11**

(Sasuke)

The bridge was cracking but she couldn't seem to hear it, or me for that matter.

"Terra! Terra! Wake up! The bridge! It's breaking!" then I realised what was happening. She began to slip from where she was sitting. I suddenly remembered earlier when she had felt dizzy. She was fainting! The bridge suddenly snapped in half taking Terra with it. Shit! I had to do something! Using the rocks I jumped down to try to get to Terra. I jumped from rock to rock trying to reach her. The rocks were starting to get lesser and lesser; I was running out of time to get her! I jumped and pushed off from a rock and pushed extra hard. I was getting closer. When I reached her I grabbed her in my arms and started going back up. That's where there was a problem. I jumped about twice and then realised there were no rocks left to jump.

"Shit!" I started falling backwards with Terra in my arms, when suddenly I was grabbed around my waist. I looked up, it was Naruto! Actually to be more precise it was about a hundred Narutos. He had used his duplication technique to make lots of himself all holding onto each others ankles all the way down the cliff.

"Glad you could make it" I said in a bored voice. He began dragging us upwards. Just as we got half way Terra began to stir. She blinked a few times then looked at me.

"You" she said in an accusing voice, and then she smiled. "Thank you for saving me, you're nothing like Itachi…" she fell back asleep again. Those words had struck me hard. Itachi. Why was he always the better one? I will get my revenge. With any means necessary.

Terra stirred and all my thoughts of Itachi evaporated. For now. As Naruto pulled us over the edge all his copies disappeared. I looked at the grinning Naruto and shook my head.

"Do you want me to take her now?" offered Naruto.

"I can manage" I said coldly. He looked at me and shrugged. I heard a whining sound and looked down. It was Terra's dog. Terra began to rouse and her eyes fluttered open.

"Are you okay?" asked Naruto. Terra just nodded slowly.

"You don't have to carry me Sasuke" she smiled.

"Well what else are you going to do?" he retorted. Terra looked at Hakura.

"I could… don't worry. This is kinda fun actually" she smiled again, and with that she fell asleep.

"We best get moving" said Naruto. "It's starting to rain". With that raindrops started falling on the ground. We jumped into the trees with Terra in my arms and Hakura slightly behind Naruto. We began to make our way into the village.

"Terra's very mysterious. Don't you think?" asked Naruto.

"In what way?" I replied.

"Well earlier Neji asked about her chakra and why he couldn't see it"

"Now that you mention it…" I said remembering earlier "Kakashi and her are keeping something" Naruto nodded in agreement as I carried on talking "She keeps running away but why?"

"One thing is for sure, she has yet to show her fighting skills to us" I nodded in agreement with Naruto. Terra began to fidget and so we stopped talking about her incase she woke up.

"You know something?" Naruto and I looked down in surprise to find Terra talking. "I think Kakashi knew about the bridge" she stopped talking and fell back to sleep and I found myself thinking about what she had said. I guess she was right, after all Kakashi knew she was still edgy around me. It was a good way for us to get to know each other, and as fate would have it, it looked like it had worked.

"So he knew she would faint because she came out of hospital to early!" Naruto shouted. Yeah, that made sense. I gave a quick nod to acknowledge his thoughts. Not that all this would matter for long though. The cursed seal was beginning to call to me and I know the only way to get the power I needed to defeat Itachi was through Orachimaru.

Authoress: Sorry for the past couple of chapters, all I have now is a head ache. Won't be updating for a while since I am getting all my exam results back shudders but at the end of every chapter I am now going to have a quote which I think is a nice one. Yeah… so R&R people!

-2-


	12. Chapter 12 A Best Friends Help

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Naruto characters… no matter how many plushies I collect. Although I do own Terra…

Authoress: Heya! Sorry it has taken me so long to update! This is dedicated to -Kishumi- and her friend. Thank you for emailing me and tell me to get off my lazy ass and do something! Updates are going to start getting slower due to GCSE's.

What is it with me and hospitals? I seem to be a magnet for disaster. As I propped myself up on the all to familiar hospital bed, I looked around the all to familiar room. It wasn't until my head had cleared that I realised Sakura was at the end of my bed. She looked at me and smiled. But only with her mouth. It wasn't in her eyes. The smile wasn't there. It was lost in her thoughts. Her eyes were empty, sad an abyss of nothing. And I bet I know what's wrong…

"You're finally awake! How are you feeling?" In the weeks that have passed Sakura and eye have become very close, and I knew for a fact, it should be me asking her if she was feeling okay.

"I'm fine" I replied smiling "But, how about you?" Her smile disappeared, mine quickly following suit. She lets out a heavy sigh and I instantly know; this is not going to be good news. Two words were all that came from her mouth.

"Sasuke's…gone" My eyes widened in disbelief. She put it so bluntly. I got out of bed and crawled over to her. I quickly glanced at myself realising that they hadn't put me into hospital clothes. Good.

I put my arm around her shoulder.

"Why?" I asked.

"Orichamaru" The name sent an intense shiver down my spine. "He wants the power to kill Itachi" Another name that sends a shiver down my spine.

"Well surely he knows that there's no quick way to become a truly great ninja" I said getting angry. My voice began to get louder. "Surely, he knows that this is cheating. How could he do this? It's just…"

"It's not his fault!" I stopped abruptly after being shouted at by Sakura. And now I know, she really does love him. I sighed and hugged her.

"Don't worry Sakura, we'll get him back. For sure." I pulled back and she looked at me gratefully, tears shining in her eyes.

"Naruto, Choji, Kiba, Neji and Shikamaru have already gone after him. I hope they bring him back, I really do." She placed her head on my shoulder and I was grateful for her. I had never had a best friend before and I felt like I would die for Sakura. So this is what it felt to have a best friend.

"You really do love him, don't you Sakura?" She nodded and I pulled her closer and gave her a light kiss on the head. She was really blessed with good looks. I have never been told I was pretty, so have always assumed I was ugly. What am I saying, assumed? It's true.

Five minutes later Shizune and Tsunadae burst in and Sakura shot up causing me (after I had been leaning on her) to fall and do a 10 point backwards roll of the bed landing with a thump.

"Ouch! My ass!" I looked up and saw Tsunadae's and Shizune's faces. They looked serious. That's and understatement. They looked _seriously _serious. Uh-oh. What did I do this time?

"Terra" Tsunadae said. I felt like saying "Yes that's my name, well done, now we can move onto learning the alphabet!" but I didn't I held it back. Just.

"We need you to get Lee" completed Shizune.

"Umm... Am I missing something here… Where exactly do I get Lee from? I don't remember them selling a Lee in the supermarket." Tsunadae looked at me sternly. I really am no good at this serious thing…

"He's gone after Sasuke" I jerked back into reality.

"WHAT? What the hell is he doing chasing after Sasuke in his condition?" I shouted. You see, after the chuunin exam Lee went through a massive operation (or so I have been told) and he is in _no _state to fight.

"Exactly so we need-"

"Wait, where _is_ Lee?" I interrupted. Tsunadae looked at me, annoyed that I had interrupted her.

"I sent a nin-dog on the route and this is the route" She showed me a map. I stared agog. This was incredible. Lee should **not** be fighting; least of all people Orachimaru have entrusted… I of all people know that.

"This is absurd!" yelled Sakura "I want to go too!"

"No" I heard myself saying. Although it didn't feel like me... it was too... serious. "You need to stay here and help the people that come back injured. This is what your talent is Sakura, this is where your services are laid." I stood up, and with a confirmation nod from both Shizune and Tsundae and a good luck hug from Sakura I left the building.

The real journey begins here.

Authoress: WOW! Look who is here to talk to us today..

Gaara: Is tied up on chair

Me: So… How do you feel about Terra?

Gaara: Mumbles something under the duct tape (no doubt some death threat)

Me: okaaay… Anywho, moving on… Fancy going on a date with me?

Gaara: Sends freaky sand hand for me

Me: Down boy! Hakura get him! Big husky dog grabs a loose end of the rope and drags Gaara on the chair around the kitchen Now... where did those kookies go? wanders off

Authoress: Yep! It's that special time people! R&R like good muffins…

Quote: "I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared to meet me is another matter."  
-Winston Churchill


	13. Chapter 13 A Lost Girl's Thoughts

Disclaimer: Nope she still hasn't achieved world domination yet and so does not own Naruto and co…

Authoress: Scribbling feverishly and mumbling so if I use ninjitsu… and then genjitsu… and the prime minister dies here…

Naruto's gone to get him. I know he'll bring him back. I just know it. I'm not allowed to go. They say my feelings will get in the way. Lee went after them. And of course the sent her after him. I have a feeling, no more than that... that she will do great things. Good or bad we have yet to find out. But she has so much more to show. I have seen her practice. She holds back on her opponents more than she does in practice. Not just that, but I feel she's hiding something. Not a little school crush secret, something bigger than I can even imagine. Terra. That name. Terra... Terra peace? Terra destruction? Terra violation? Terra helper? Destruction seems to suit it… but she is such a sweet girl, so kind, always smiling and staying strong. Always the shoulder to cry on and yet never needing a shoulder herself. Come to think of it, I have yet to see her shed a tear. Of course this could all be paranoia, yeah, that's probably it. I know she'll bring back Lee… who knows she could bring back Sasuke.

Sasuke. What have you done? You left your friends, your village. Why? To seek power from some one who wants your body as a container? I just don't understand! Sasuke! Why don't you hear me!

Sakura leaned back on the tree and looked into the star lit sky. All the questions chased each other around in her head, until they were dizzy and arrived at the same place they left from. The cool night's air blew the stray hair from her face. She sighed and lifted her hand to her blossom coloured hair. Nostalgia hit her like waves hit the shore.

I did this for _you_. I cut the hair I had tried so hard and so long to make nice for you.

She laughed. An empty laugh that dripped disbelief from every decibel.

I grew it. Long, soft and cared for it, _for you_. Then I cut it, _for you_. What for? When you just chuck it back in my face? What is this? Why do I feel like this? All these questions... yet, no answers? I should have reason to hate you Sasuke... Yet I can't...

Sakura slid down the tree to sit on the hill's lush green grass. She placed her hands on her knees and took a deep breath. The cold air entered her lungs and she felt her mind clear for a couple of seconds. But it never goes away. The thought flooded back into her mind. She shook her head, wanting this all to come to an end.

A twig cracked behind her but she didn't move. Footsteps were coming closer towards her…

"Sakura…" Sakura turned round and gasped.

"Tsunadae! You scared me!" Tsunadae nodded apologetically and sat next to her.

"Terra's your best friend right?"

"Yeah, I love her like a sister"

"Well then I guess it's only right you know something about her…" Sakura looked at Tsunadae and suddenly realised she looked very serious…

Authoress: Sorry it's so short! I decided it was about time we heard from Sakura! Anyway it's your favourite time of the day people! R&R!


	14. Chapter 14 Fight To The Death

Disclaimer: She's still trying to take over the world… And she still doesn't own Naruto…

Authoress: I decided to split this chapter in two and leave you with a cliffie! Yey! Anywho, I have been typing for 3 hours straight (with a break of the Tesco van man) and am now going to be typing for another couple of hours as I do the next chapter. Bows I know, I'm wonderful, but no need to thank me! I love my job!

Disclaimer: O.o Onto the story…

Terra had travelled a long way through the forest before she started to see a clearing. She slowed down and stood in a tree at the edge of the forest. She looked ahead of herself and noticed there was a huge field surrounded by trees.

_In the centre there was Naruto fighting with… is that? No. No time to ponder over that. But why do I feel like I know him?_

Her attention shifted as a green blur raced past her. She reached her hand out and grabbed it by the collar. Lee was at the end of her arm looking very… determined? She sighed and let him go as he turned to face her.

"Like a fish on a line" I said "What do you think you're doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? Naruto needs help!" I looked over at Naruto who was struggling against that man. I smirked and Lee looked confused.

"Well two is better than one I suppose… Let's do it!" I shouted. Lee looked at me as if I were mad. I am but that's not the point.

"I thought you were sent here to stop me?" I let a smile play across my lips.

"Was I? Oh yes, but they didn't say _when_ to bring you back. I enjoy fighting. They shouldn't send a fighter to do a retriever's job!" He returned my smile and we raced across to the middle of the field. Lee sent a flying kick straight into the strangers back, somersaulted and landed up right next to me. The guy turned and raised an eyebrow at us seemingly unfazed. Naruto looked at us, tired, but glad.

"You're one of those guys aren't you?" I sighed.

"One of what guys" He answered remaining cool.

"The ones that just can't resist taking their shirts off" I smirked and I could feel Lee grin next to me. I looked at our opponent. Straight shoulder length white hair, green eyes and two red dots on his forehead.

_Why? Why does he seem so familiar to me?_

"We are your opponents now" stated Lee matter of factly.

"You're free to go Naruto! Hey that rhymes!" Naruto grinned at my comment while I stood there looking pleased with myself. He turned to leave, but the next thing you know the man was after him. Without warning there was a chain of slightly glowing leaves from around his wrist to where I had a firm grip of it in my hands.

"We're your opponents now" Said Lee.

"So don't turn your back on us" I finished. I gave a quick nod to Naruto and he began his pursuit of Sasuke. Before he went he warned us.

"Fuzzy brows, Terra, watch out he uses his own bones to attack, and he is very, very strong!" I winked at him and he left.

"Fine if you are to be my opponents, I like to know the names of those I am going to defeat" My chain disappeared into thin air.

"Sorry" I said "But we only give names to those we are going to defeat!"

_She's a quick thinker at retorts_ thought Lee _I wonder if she used to argue with Kakashi a lot?_

"Lee"

"Terra" We both stated "You?"

"Kimimaro" he grinned. I made a disapproving noise, but he seemed like he had more to say. "A faithful servant of Orachimaru". The name froze me to the spot. Lee looked at me and I forced myself to relax.

"Well _faithful servant_" I said "let's see how well you do against Konoha's finest Ninjas!" I retorted.

"Oh, _finest_?" He replied "I know who you are Terra, and you're anything but _fine_" He smirked as I stared agog.

_He knows me? How? Why do I feel like I know him?_

"Just ignore him Terra!" Lee said to me "He's trying to get to you!" I nodded.

_Just trying to get to me._

Lee began running at Kimimaro and placed two blows on him. Kimimaro jumped into the air and came back down about to use full force on Lee, but Lee jumped into the air and landed a punch right under is chin. Kimimaro went flying backwards and landed upright. He moved his shoulder about a bit. Any normal person would have broke it but his just creaked.

"My next move will end it" Lee stated.

"Don't be stupid!" I shouted "You're in no condition to do that!"

"Konoha great whirlwind!" Lee went into kick Kimimaro at the legs. Kimimaro acted exactly as lee wanted him to and jumped in to the air. I shook my head as Lee jumped after him. He tried to kick him twice more but couldn't land a single one. This was getting interesting. I took my hand from my head and folded my arms.

_I wonder when he will want me to do something? _I thought to myself.

"You're very flexible aren't you?" Lee said "And you move very precisely" Lee ran to Kimimaro and pulled back his fist. Kimimaro completely dodged it as Lee fell forwards he raised his bone sword to Lee who was still falling.

_Right that's it!_

A bow and arrow made from water materialised in my hands and I pulled back the string when…

"Please wait!" cried Lee. Kimimaro stopped in his tracks. "Excuse me it's time for my medicine" I fell backwards from the sheer stupidity of Lee. When I stood back up my bow and arrow disappeared. "Sorry but I have to take it. Please wait a moment" He lifted the bottle from his ninja bag and raised it.

_Wait a minute! That's not medicine! Maybe I should warn him… _I contemplated this thought.

"Lee! Wait!"

_Too late… he already drank it…_

Lee wobbled around and dropped the bottle on the floor. Kimimaro just looked on in strangeness and I had to laugh.

"What did he just drink?" He asked, it just made me laugh harder. I retreated to a safe distance when Lee's eyes half closed and his cheeks started to go red.

"Whosa hell're you?" shouted Lee "Geez you idiot…" Lee began to get into a fighting stance and Kimimaro held up his bone sword. The wind blew across the field blowing my hair to one side.

Lee still wobbling edged closer to his opponent. He even fell onto his knees and I had to stifle laughter. Kimimaro looked on in utter disbelief, his face blank as a piece of paper. Suddenly Lee leapt up and began to run towards him.

"Don't just stand there and stare!" He jumped up and sent a spinning kick. Kimimaro dodged and jumped into the air. Lee quickly followed fighting him in the air. They were suspended in the air, fighting. It was a blur of activity to fast for normal people to follow.

_Luckily I'm not normal… _I thought _It's at times like these I'm glad I'm a ninja!_

They both came back down to earth again and Kimimaro was pushed back a few feet. Lee was wobbling again.

"Not… bad" said Lee "for some reason as I move around more, I'm starting to feel really weird. Huh?" Lee fell backwards and was lying backwards. I raised an eyebrow and put my hand over my mouth trying not to laugh.

_So this is the art of drunken fist, eh?_

Kimimaro went cautiously towards him. Looking at him he realised Lee had fallen asleep. He put his sword above Lee who suddenly lurched up shouting

"You fell for it!" he started punching and eventually landed one on Kimimaro who went spinning backwards and landed heavily on his back causing a dust cloud around him.

"I was acting like I was asleep, but really I wasn't!" I sighed and muttered to myself.

"He's acting like such a kid..." Suddenly Lee was in front of me.

"What did you say?"

"Umm… err… nothing… umm… Hey look at that flying banana with pyjamas on its head!" I quickly hid behind the tree and lee went back to focusing on Kimimaro. As soon as he was in front of him again he fell backwards… asleep… yet again. Kimimaro got up and walked towards Lee. He was nearly there when…

"You fell for it again!" Up shot Lee with raised fists. "If you think I'm the type who'll just lay here with my arms and legs outstretched then… you're dead wrong! I… I… huh? Why am I here?" Lee wobbled and fell backward on his butt, folding his legs and crossing hi arms. "Why?" Kimimaro looked beside him and saw the bottle. He picked it up and read…

"Sake? Is he just drunk? Then… I'll send you to the after life painlessly" Kimimaro stood over Lee who was now flat out sleeping. Kimimaro held the sword tip to his nose. I came out from behind the tree and took a step forward.

_Has lee gone a step to far this time?_

Kimimaro span the sword around and grabbed it. He went to stab Lee who rolled to his left away from the sword. I looked on agog. Kimimaro tried again but to the same answer. He did it faster but all that happened was that Lee moved out of the way. That was, until he blocked it with his feet… Lee pulled his feet to the side and stood up while Kimimaro span off. Kimimaro went in for the kill. He swiped and swiped at Lee who kept on dodging effortlessly. Again and again…

"I was sleeping so well." Swiping, swiping… "You annoying buzzing bug!" a combo of kicking later Kimimaro was being pushed back. "Achoo! Come on!" shouted Lee. "If you're not coming to me! I'll come to you!" Lee ran at great speed towards him. When he was about three meters from giving him a good pounding… he fell over. If this was an anime, you would have seen me sweat drop…

"Ouch. It's your fault!" Suddenly Lee went mad. Kicking and punching, spinning and tumbling. All Kimimaro could do was dodge.

_And I for one will never go out on a night with Lee… This was amazing. I have never seen such fighting from Lee. Such speed and power. Especially from one of Orachimaru's most powerful servants. What? How did I know that? Where did that come from?_

Then suddenly he was fighting with his feet. Pushing Kimimaro, back, back way back. Kimimaro's speed suddenly increased. Sending many slashes at lee… he bent backwards and Kimimaro moved behind him in the blink of an eye. He went to slash at Lee who was continuing backwards. But Lee held his own and came back up again. This battle was so fierce; Lee was putting Kimimaro under so much pressure. Much more of this and soon Lee would win. Suddenly Lee tripped him slightly and punched him in the stomach sending him flying backwards, landing on his back and flipping over to stand up at the last minute.

_God that must've hurt!_

"Achoo!" screeched Lee.

* * *

Somewhere back in the woods three black figures were making their way to the three shinobi. One to Lee, one to Kiba and one to Shikamaru who were trying to get out of the sticky situation. Shikamaru was trying to hold off one of Sasuke's protectors while Kiba was hiding from his, seriously wounded. But were they to help or hinder the Konoha shinobi…

* * *

_Uh-oh… looks like Kimimaro is getting serious…_

Lee swayed as Kimimaro stood up.

_I can't read his moves. And his managing to land blows on me. Very impressive Tajiutsu.I don't have a choice. _Kimimaro thought.

A glowing light that started at his chest began to spread out. It was like a glowing fire colour, buts as it spread it looked like branches of trees going in different directions. It stopped and stayed on the main part of his torso. He began twitching his fingers, and things were moving under the skin of his arms like a bug. Five bones burst out from his arm stopping at his wrist. I let out a small gasp and he smirked in my direction.

"I'm surprised you don't remember"

_What is he talking about?_

"My bones are my main method of attack. You heard that from the replicating boy earlier didn't you?"

_I guess he means Naruto, yeah, the shadow clone technique._

"I'll awaken you from your drunkenness soon."

"I'm not drunk!" retorted Lee. He ran up to Kimimaro and kicked. Kimimaro blocked the first one and fended off the second one. Lee went backwards but landed on his feet.

_I wonder if I should help now? Nah. I'm good just watching._

"Then I'll wake you up!" Kimimaro raced towards Lee who went towards him. They began hand to hand combat again.

"I'm not drunk!" Lee ducked under Kimimaro's kick. "Besides, I'm underage" Lee flipped away. "Kids can't drink alcohol." Lee went to punch him in the stomach when bones sprang from Kimimaro's chest sending lee tumbling backwards.

"Lee!" I shouted.

"It's to unpredictable isn't it?" asked Kimimaro. "This is my bloodline limit." I noticed Lee had been cut on the cheek. Lee got up slightly.

"What? My head is pounding. And this wound…" he put his hand to his cheek "It looks like I was drunk. That form!" He looked at Kimimaro.

"Looks like you have awoken from that drunken stupor. This is my bloodline limit. My bloodline limit allows me to freely control both my bone-forming and bone-reabsorbing cells. I also can control calcium density to shape my bones. In other words, humans have about 200 bones in their body, but for me, I don't have a fixed number." Lee stood up and another bone protruded from Kimimaro's chest, shining like whitened teeth.

"But bones are bones. If I break them then it's over!" Lee began to run towards Kimimaro.

_I do believe Lee just underestimated him…_

Terra shook her head and took a couple of steps forward incase anything went wrong and she needed to save Lee.

Lee went to punch Kimimaro who just put up the arm with the bones and Lee's punch bounced right off.

_It's so hard!_ Thought Lee. _Are these really human bones?_

Lee went racing towards Kimimaro again. As Lee came behind him…

"Dance of the Larch" Bones sprang from the top half of Kimimaro's body. He began to spin around and around very fast while Lee was just being tossed and ripped apart like a toy. He stopped spinning and Lee was thrown across the floor like a rag doll. Lee didn't get up. His eyes were closed and Kimimaro put his bones back in his body and began to walk away. Lee's eyes flickered and he stood up.

"Please wait. This is where it really begins"

_You're a fool Lee! You're at your limit!_

_My objective is to slow him down as much as possible_ thought Lee _Since that's the case, I wanted to avoid using such a huge suicidal move but it seems that he is not so weak that I can avoid using my secret technique._

Kimimaro turned back round. Lee unwrapped the bandage on one of his arms slightly then got into a fighting stance.

"Here I come!"

_Since I just came out of surgery I'm not in my best form_ Lee sped towards Kimimaro _but I should be able to open the first gates of the eight, the initial gate._ He started to run around Kimimaro in circles so fast he was causing a dust cloud to raise.

"First gate! Initial gate!" all you could see was the dust. "Kai…!" a bandage sprung out from the dust and wrapped Kimimaro.

"Initial Lotus!" Lee went to kick him but Kimimaro's bones struck through Lee's binding and Lee hit pure and solid bone.

_He was able to cancel out the impact with his bones? _Thought Lee struggling to get his foot free.

"Impressive speed" commented Kimimaro "But it's over"

_Not if I can help it. _Thought Terra.

"Die!" Kimimaro went to punch Lee, with his bones that would be used like swords, Lee was frozen to the spot. He couldn't move if he tried.

Authoress: Well I hope that was to everyone's liking. Now onto the interview. I would've got Sasuke but at the moment he is running away trying to avoid Naruto. So I grabbed Lee instead. Lee is doing nice guy pose

Lee: Yes I've come to talk about my operation and the greatest sensei in the world who was there for me and believed in me!

Authoress: on second thought Looks evil Go Hakura! Big dog chases Lee around the kitchen. O! Grapes! Must eat! Thank god for the Tesco van man!

Lee: is being chased but stops to do nice guy pose R&R people. If you won't do it for the authoress, do it for me Love heart wink. Is bitten on the bum by Hakura. Runs around kitchen again


	15. Chapter 15 Do I Know You?

Disclaimer: Yeehaw! We now officially own Naruto!

Authoress: We? Don't you mean me? And anyway that's not the point! We **don't **own anything from Naruto!

Disclaimer: Don't we?

Authoress: Nope. Well enjoy people. I know I have been updating quite a lot, but it stops here for at least a week. I'm going on holiday in a caravan. Ugh. (I will be wearing a paper bag on my head don't worry)

Suddenly Lee was gone from where he was before. Terra appeared meters away from where Kimimaro had attacked.

"Did you forget you had two opponents? Or are you just plain stupid?" she said angrily.

"My, my, some one is angry" said Kimimaro blankly. Terra put Lee down on the grass and stood opposite Kimimaro.

"My turn" Terra stated through gritted teeth. "And I'm going to hurt you for what you did to Lee" Kimimaro raised an eyebrow "One more thing" Terra smirked "I'm not the close range type" Kimimaro returned the smirk with intense evil.

"Oh I know that, I know more than you think Terra _Hatake_" Terra's eyes widened in shock.

_How does he know me? So much for just trying to put me off Lee. He really knows me!_

Taking the advantage of Terra's surprise Kimimaro went to punch Terra who quickly gathered her wits and dodged to the left one of the bones deflecting of her Konoha head band. She looked at the scratch it had caused.

_That's right! I am officially a ninja of Konoha! I have the head band on my left upper arm to prove it! And I will not loose to Orachimaru scum!_

Terra flipped backwards quickly three times to put some space in between them. Her hands clapped together she put her two middle fingers down, the material of her gloves rubbing together at the base of each fingers.

"Let's get this party started!" she shouted. Lee sat up and watched this fight, unable to do anything after being injured.

_I've never seen her in a proper fight before. _Thought Lee. _Time to see what her skills are._

Electricity started to gather around her hands and at the base of her feet.

"Raging thunder!" she shouted. She thrust one hand forward and what seemed like a dragons head made from electricity shot out heading straight for Kimimaro. He jumped up out of the way when it came towards him and Terra smirked. Suddenly there was four dragon heads made from electricity, each heading from a different direction towards Kimimaro.

"There's no escape" whispered Lee. The dragons crashed into Kimimaro and a couple of seconds later his body crashed to the ground. The electricity fizzled and disappeared in the air. Terra stepped forward until she was at Kimimaro's head.

"Ruby I call upon your power,

Lend me a hand in this time of need,

Within my reach,

A sword of Flames" Terra chanted.

_What is that?_ Thought Lee. _Ruby? Lending power? Terra, we have yet to learn about you._

A metal hilt of a sword appeared in Terra's hand as Kimimaro started to get up. Terra jumped back as they both got into fighting stances.

"Ignite!" she yelled. The blade of the sword appeared. It was made from fire, but it still retained the shape of a swords blade.

_Wow. _Lee thought to himself. _An arrow made of water, a sword made of fire. She must have everything!_

Terra charged towards Kimimaro and went to strike him. A bone shot out from his arm in the shape of a sword and he grabbed it and parried Terra's on coming blows. Back and forth they went fighting like proper swordsmen. Kimimaro put extra thrust in one and Terra missed the dodge. It plunged into her left shoulder. She flew backwards and landed on her back causing a dust cloud.

_Damn!_ She thought _Lucky it wasn't my fighting arm, but that's gonna smart in the morning!_

"Still using the same tricks then?" asked Kimimaro

"Why are you acting like you know me!" Terra was angry and was shouting.

"Oh, I'm not acting" he smirked. Pleased at getting Terra wound up. "I know a lot about you. I've got to say, that dragon trick was new, but I know Terra, I know about _that_" He glanced at her glove on her right hand. Automatically she put her other hand on her wrist as if to cover something up.

"How!" she shouted.

_What's going on? _Thought Lee. _What is he talking about? And Terra, how does he know you?_

"How can you know about something even I don't!" Kimimaro smiled and sped towards the unready Terra. Her sword disappeared.

_Damn! I wasn't concentrating!_ She thought to herself.

As Kimimaro came racing towards her all she could do was dodge. Their activity was just like his and Lee's. A fast movement that looked like a blur. Unfortunately Terra wasn't as fast as Lee. She was quickly gaining more scratches and cuts. She went to punch him in the face but Kimimaro the quicker of the two punched her in the stomach sending her flying back. She hit her wounded shoulder and cried out in pain.

"Terra!" cried Lee. Kimimaro looked at him.

"Your next" he grinned. He went up to Terra who couldn't move. "So glad we got to meet again" Terra's eyes widened in shock.

"Again?" she whispered. This just made Kimimaro laugh. He raised his sword to her and struck down.

_This is gonna hurt but I have enough strength to do it_ she thought.

Just as he put his sword down she rolled just slightly so the sword went into the same wound it had made before. She screamed in pain.

"So you had a bit of strength left. Eh? I don't know what good that just did you but you only prolonged death by a few minutes" Terra was going in and out of unconsciousness.

"Sorry Lee" she said and fell into the black abyss that is unconsciousness. He raised the sword for the second time, knowing there was nothing either of them could do.

"I'm glad I was the one that could decide your fate. Terra"

The sword was thrust down…

Authoress: So I left you with a cliff hanger for two weeks. Mwahaha! I thought it'd be very inappropriate to put an interview here, so I shall put a quote instead. R&R people!

**All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from you.**

—**Ernest Hemingway**


	16. Chapter 16 One End One Begining

**Disclaimer: She is very, very mad. Santa didn't bring her the ownership of Naruto. –Cowers-**

**Authoress: Okies tiddlywinks, here is the next chapter. I know you have been waiting for, like, years but now you have lots of reading to do!!! It took me 5 times as long to write it as it did for you to read it! **

Chapter 16

A fight till the death

"Terra!" shouted Lee.

_Why can't I do anything? Move Lee! Move!_ And Lee tried to move he truly did, but he couldn't do anything as the sword went down to strike Terra's flesh. He winced and closed his eyes. A couple of seconds later he opened his eyes.

"Terra!" He cried. But not out of sorrow, out of astonishment.

Sand.

There was sand wrapped around Kimimaro's sword stopping it but inches from Terra's heart.

_It's can't be... but it is!_ Lee let out a broad smile. The sand made a mini explosion and sent Kimimaro flying backwards while at the same time picking up Terra and Lee and taking them towards…

"Gaara of the desert" said Lee slowly. Kimimaro smiled.

"So that's who you are." Terra groaned and her eyes flickered open.

"What's going on?" She sat up and took in a sharp breathe and flung her hand to her shoulder. "It hurts…" She looked up and saw Lee and smiled.

"Stupid question I know, but, Lee, why did you bring sand here, this isn't a beach party" Lee just nodded behind Terra. She looked round and her heart skipped a beat then jumped, and skipped again. Her heart was racing.

"You…" she said. Gaara took three steps forward Lee and Terra either side of him. His crossed arms and blank face made it impossible to see what he was thinking.

Lee stood up and raised his arm. Blood curled round his arm sliding to his elbow then plopped to the ground.

"Lee…" Terra said.

"I'll fight him" Gaara looked at Lee. But Lee was being stubborn.

"No please, be my back up!" Lee started to run but Gaara's sand grabbed him round the ankle and tripped him up. Terra winced and looked away. She couldn't bear to see good hearted Lee all beaten up like this.

Gaara cushioned Lee with his sand.

"Sand in my mouth…" Lee mumbled. He turned his head around. "Please let go!" Lee tried to get up but winced and nearly fell over.

"You can't do anything in your current condition" said Gaara as he walked forward past Lee. Terra managed to stand up and walked to Lee.

"You've done more than enough Lee" she smiled and as Lee looked into her eyes, he could tell what she said was genuine.

_She really is a nice person. _Thought Lee. _Misunderstood, but nice all the same._

Lee nodded and stood up leaning against Terra's unhurt arm. Gaara walked on oblivious.

"I'll fight him" he repeated.

"Please be careful!" shouted Terra. "His attacks consist of bones"

"His own" added Lee. Next to him, he could feel Terra shudder. "Are you okay?"

"Just remembering something…" Kimimaro heard this and smiled.

"About time" he grinned. Terra looked at him, sweat rolled down her cheek.

_What am I trying to remember? It's so blurry, and it hurts to think about it, it's like someone doesn't want me to remember!_

Kimimaro raised his hands and his fingertips began to get small holes in them, and through them pushed white bones and they shot like bullets.

"Hassenden!" They were going straight towards Gaara. A shield of sand came straight in front of Gaara, like it always did.

"He's able to freely control his bones" said Lee.

"Gaara of the desert" said Kimimaro monotonically. "Like your name suggests you use sand, huh?" Gaara took a step forward a cloud of sand swirling above his gourd.

_A strong barrier made of sand. He's not a close range fighter. _Thought Kimimaro. _Getting close to him will be difficult._

Kimimaro got ready to fire bullets from his fingers again but Gaara sent his sand forward. Kimimaro jumped dodging it and sent his bullets straight towards Gaara. Automatically the sand shield came up again, protecting Gaara. Kimimaro kept this up while Gaara sent his sand after him again and again to try and stop him from moving. But Kimimaro sent bullets after bullets dodging and testing Gaara's strength.

_He doesn't make any wasted movements! _Thought Lee. _He must be a very high level taijutsu user._

In his head Kimimaro was making calculations about Gaara. _Offensive and defensive at the same time. He's capable of attacking and defending using the sand. However, the amount of sand he can control is probably limited to the amount in that gourd._

"Gaara of the desert. What a foolish nickname" said Kimimaro. Terra's eyes narrowed in dislike. "You can't do anything without sand!" Gaara sent his sand forward to attack Kimimaro and Kimimaro just jumped around dodging it. "Going around with that heavy sand gourd there is proof!" Gaara stopped and Kimimaro looked into the sky as a sand clod appeared then disappeared.

"How dull" He went to move but found his legs entwined with the ground, bound by that of Gaara's sand.

"As long as I have sand" Gaara raised his hand so it was level and straight "I can do anything! You are the fool. I have no trouble producing sand from the ground; I have as much sand as I want!" A whirlwind of sand began to form around Kimimaro. Terra and Lee looked on a few steps behind Gaara wondering what would become of this battle.

_He'll win for sure. _Thought Terra. _He has to win._

_Gaara of the desert… _thought Lee _your name isn't just for show._

Kimimaro was completely wrapped up in sand.

"You got him!" Yelled Lee. Terra shook her head knowingly.

"Not yet" replied Gaara. "Desert Coffin" Gaara squeezed his hand and the sand particles began compressing Kimimaro. Gaara closed his hand and the sand stopped compressing and stilled. Smudges and splashes of blood were on the sand and everything was still. For a minute. Gaara withdrew his hand and left it as his side. Terra released a breath she hadn't realised she was holding and Lee seemed to relax his shoulders.

"Watching him reminds me of that guy" said Gaara. Terra and Lee looked at him. "Uchiha Sasuke. He had the same eyes"

"Same eyes?" Lee turned to Gaara.

"The ones that say 'I want to confirm the value of my existence' that's the kind of eyes." Minutes past and the trio stood still letting the breeze tussle with their hair.

"Something's not right" Terra stiffened waiting for something to happen. Her knee slightly buckled and she fell to the ground on her knees.

"Terra!" Lee sat beside her. "Please, do not push yourself" Terra gritted her teeth and put her hand on the ground. She closed her eyes and her hand began to glow a faint blue. The wound in her shoulder stopped bleeding and slightly healed itself. She stood up once again and smiled at Lee.

"Believe me; if I was pushing myself, you'd no about it". All of a sudden Terra's smile disappeared as the sand that was wrapped around Kimimaro began to shift. A hand came through the sand followed by Kimimaro's body.

"N-no way!" stammered Lee. Terra's eyes narrowed as she tried to recognise the pattern on his body.

Yes, Kimimaro had pulled himself out of Gaara's sand coffin and had appeared with pieces of skin missing here and there showing bare skin. But the weirdest thing was the pattern that appeared on hi. It was lines that were all over and when they bent they did not curve circley but squarely. This squared line pattern was begging to hurt Terra's head as she tried to remember where she last saw it.

"Impressive pressure" said Kimimaro flatly. "if I didn't create a film of bone right under my skin, I would've been squashed instantly"

"Well that was the plan" cheekiness flashed in Terra's eyes as Lee tried to suppress a grin.

"Bones... he's also a monster" mused Gaara. "That's a troublesome body"

"I underestimated you" Kimimaro was looking at Gaara and Terra let out a slight annoyed sound at this remark. "However, I will no longer be caught by your sand" Gaara separated his feet and made a quick bunch of hand symbols. Terra looked at Gaara and then Lee.

"I suggest we stay out of the way" Terra grabbed Lee and stood slightly behind Gaara but enough so she could see what was going on. A tidal wave of sand seemed to build up from just in front of where they were standing. The wind being created by this sea of sand blew the hair from all of their faces and leaving Gaara's tattoo completely exposed. If Terra was a girly girl she would've giggled at his cuteness. But she wasn't. So she didn't. The wave rose higher and higher.

"Quicksand Flood!" shouted Gaara. It went so high Terra could no longer see the trees that were on the other side let alone Kimimaro. When it was high enough it came crashing down and began to go toward Kimimaro like a herd of angry bull. Kimimaro tried to doge it and he succeeded for a while, but once snared by the sand he could not be released. He was dragged under while the sand kept on surging forward toppling trees and swamping the forests.

"He's changing the landscape…" Lee looked on in amazement. "Y-you did it"

"Not yet" replied Gaara. As the sand settled Gaara went down on one knee and placed both hands into the sand.

"Desert imperial mourning!" four earth trembling surges went through the sand. It was sure to crush anything underneath, or within it. Gaara stayed down while Lee and Terra gathered themselves.

_At least it's over…_Terra sighed.

"He's persistent" mumbled Gaara.

The sand began to move for the second time that day. But what rose from that sand was unlike anything seen in a lifetime.

"What is that?" gasped Lee. Terra looked on and pictures began zooming through her head but she was unable to make sense of any of them. She clutched her head.

"Terra are you okay?" Lee looked on in concern. The images stopped and Terra released her head.

"I'm fine…" Gaara lifted his hands and placed them in front of him. He seemed to grab the air and turn it as it he was driving some kind of car. But it was stuck the wheel was turning real slow. The sand however picked up some pace and seemed to circle Kimimaro who had now come out of the sand. It was trying to crush him where he stood. The sand imploded in on itself causing sand explosions and major dust in the eye accidents.

"Desert coffin!" Gaara crushed his hands together and the sand pressurised on Kimimaro but he burst out of it with brilliant strength. If you could say it was him. His skin had turned a gray colour he had a tail and from the back of his neck to the tip of this tail he had bones protruding from his skin.

But the scariest thing was his eyes. They were now yellow outside with a black centre. They seemed to look right through me… But they seemed like they were looking right into my soul at the same time. It was almost if he knew me….

Terra looked at Kimimaro in wonder as he sped towards the trio. Faster and faster he sped towards them.

"How did he get so fast!" cried Lee. Gaara was clenching his fists in front of him making mini explosions in the sand happen. But no matter how fast, Kimimaro was faster. What was more worrying was that Kimimaro was getting closer with a deadly look on his face.

One clench of a fist… one dodge… two clench… two dodge… this could go on forever. Well at least until Kimimaro got too the three ninjas. As Kimimaro got closer Gaara knelt down placing one hand on the floor. Sand shifted and became a wall of sand in front of the sand shinobi. Kimimaro punched through the wall and slammed into Gaara who went flying backwards and landed with a crash.

"Gaara!" Terra screamed. Lee looked back at Kimimaro who was sitting with a calm look on his face.

"Is that the absolute defence I have heard so much about that weak" Terra turned to hear Kimimaro speak and scowled. "What a let down." Gaara pulled himself up, his face of sand cracking slightly. In no time he had fixed it with sand again. "I see" continued Kimimaro "You're wearing the sand"

"He's not your only opponent!" Lee had got behind Kimimaro "I'm here as well!" Lee went to kick Kimimaro who simply turned and went to whack Lee with his tail while he was in mid air. Gaara saw this and put sand between them lessening the hit, however Lee went flying behind Kimimaro. Terra looked from Lee, to Kimimaro to Gaara. She didn't know where to go.

"Need a decision to be made Terra?" Kimimaro smirked, and it dripped with hatred. He ran toward Terra with the intent to kill.

"Wind shield!" Terra shouted. She swiped her hand in front of her quickly making a shield of air in front of her. Holding both hands in front of her palms facing the shield the blows from Kimimaro were hard to keep on that side of the shield due to her lack of strength. Sweat beaded on her head and rolled down her face as she squinted trying to find strength from deep inside her. Kimimaro gave some extra force into a certain blow with his tail. It smashed straight through Terra's defence and caught her in the stomach so hard she coughed blood. She flew through the air.

_I can still move… I can still MOVE!_

Lee stood up, jumped and caught Terra gracefully in the air, but landed awkwardly and fell to the ground. Lying in a messy heap on the ground Kimimaro turned to Gaara.

"All this sand is a pain in the ass. I'll kill you first, Gaara" Gaara looked on with a blank face as Kimimaro reached to his back. He grabbed a bone where normally someone's spine should be and pulled it through his flesh. And his spine became a sword.

"H-he just pulled out his spinal cord!" stammered Lee.

"I feel kinda sick…" was Terra's reply.

"Dance of Clematis Vine!" Kimimaro swung his spinal cord sword and it wrapped itself around Gaara who had put sand around himself like a baby's blanket.

"Flower!" With his free arm a bone began to appear from Kimimaro's palm. It grew and wrapped itself around his arm to his shoulder engulfing his hand and becoming a very sharp point. "This bone has been strengthened to the maximum. I will pierce through your sand defence along with you" Sand began to move around in front of Gaara.

"Supreme absolute defence, shield of Shukakau!" the sand formed into a type of fat creature, with its arms spread out either side of it and red paint markings around its stomach. It had no legs and a hate with a wide gaping black mouth and yellow eyes with black pupils.

Kimimaro raised his hand and plunged it into the shield of sand.

"Gaara!" Terra yelled and moved to get up but Lee grabbed her.

"I know this because I have fought him once, his shield of sand, is without doubt, an absolute defence. And it's strange appearance and shape. He's fine, there's no way it can be broken!" With these words of comfort Terra stood, watched and did all she could do, and that was believe.

Kimimaro drilled further and further into the sand. Terra began to get twitchy as the two opponents stared at each other both as blank as the other. Kimimaro pushed further and his eyes narrowed in determination while Gaara's narrowed in dislike. The bone began to crack on Kimimaro's arm. The sound was like glass being stood on, and all of a sudden it burst peeling away from his arm. There was a slight hole where Kimimaro had been digging, but no bigger than a small saucepan.

"That's hard" admitted Kimimaro in disgust.

"I collected the minerals with the highest tensile strength from the ground, added pressure with my chakra and mixed them with the sand." Explained Gaara "Your… unique technique… is a bloodline technique isn't it?"

"The Kaguya clan's. Now this technique is mine alone"

"You must be the last of your clan. Then right here today that clan will become extinct." Terra flinched at these words from Gaara. Such words of hate from the man that bore 'love' on his head.

"You're right that could happen. Due to my illness my body won't hold out much longer. However… It won't be destroyed. Besides, I'm not alone."

"You're not alone?" Gaara questioned Kimimaro.

"That's right. As an existence which is part of Orochimaru-sama's ambition, I will remain in Orochimaru-sama's heart forever!"

"Orochimaru's brain washing, huh?" Terra flinched at this name, and yet more images flashed through her head. A word kept repeating through this.

"Black Thorn…" mused Terra. Lee looked at her quizzically.

"What?" But Terra just looked at him and smiled. She wouldn't say anything until she had figured it out. She looked back to Gaara.

"Do you think we should help him know?" Lee shook his head.

"We'll know when we're needed" Terra nodded in agreement as Gaara's fight took a turn for the worst.

"How empty you are…" said Gaara. He made a hand symbol. The sand beneath Kimimaro's feet began to swirl. He began to sink into the ground. The sand shield disappeared and a hand of sand appeared and pulled on the bone that was wrapped around Gaara.

_I've used too many major moves. _Gaara's face stayed a blank canvas through these thoughts. _I don't have much chakra left. This will end it!_

The sand around Gaara exploded outwards removing the bone that was wrapped around him. Kimimaro fought to gain control whipping his bone to beat off the sand, but the sand was to powerful. He sank, sank through the earth and the dip became a huge whirlpool of sand tugging at Kimimaro. A branch of sand had disabled the use of his arm and now there was no where left to go for Kimimaro.

"What an incredible amount of chakra!" whispered Lee. Terra nodded in agreement, looking with adoring eyes at Gaara.

"What an amazing person" Kimimaro was shoulder deep in sand and going further down.

"You will sink 200 metres under ground and be held there. With the pressure of sand glued to your body, you won't even be able to move a finger." Kimimaro completely disappeared but the sand kept moving for many seconds after. Terra could only imagine he was being pushed further and further down. And all of a sudden it stopped. Everything was still.

"You did it!" shouted Lee for about the fifth time that day. Terra couldn't help it she laughed a little at Lee's pessimistic ways. He looked at Terra and suddenly his face went gloomy. "This time it is over right?" Gaara said nothing for a while and Terra recomposed herself. He seemed to watch the sand for some seconds. But nothing was moving. It had to be over… didn't it?

"Dance…" Gaara's eyes widened. "Dance of the seeding ferns" Great white spikes shot through the ground popping up everywhere. If you were standing above one of them, you'd have no chance. They were making their way straight to Lee.

"Lee move!" Terra yelled. She had already moved expecting Lee to have followed her.

"I-I can't!" He stammered. Terra saw the white bone nearing him. She jumped as fast as she could and pushed Lee out of the way. She collapsed on top of him, but the bones weren't just trying to do one measly line, they wanted to create a forest of bone. Again the bone shot through the ground straight up and more and more were on a path towards the two. This time Terra could do nothing. The sand beneath the two of them began moving and suddenly they were floating in the air. On sand.

Gaara joined them so the trio were kneeling on one big floating sand platform.

"You saved us…" Lee said quietly. Terra just released a breath she didn't realise she was holding for the second time that day. "You're truly amazing to be able to do this" Terra looked at Lee, who was quite obviously sucking up to Gaara. Terra shook her head and looked down at the land below which had been changed twice in one day. All you could see in the opening that was once a field, was large white spears sticking up from the ground. It looked like a forest of bone, although you could see no forest floor.

"We just got on the sand I always use…" was Gaara's reply. Terra shook her head again. These two had no idea… "It's very easy for me. He was persistent, but it's over now. He won't appear before us again." Lee nodded in agreement. Terra wasn't so sure… Gaara put a hand on the sand that was carrying him to brace himself. A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. "I'm at my limit. Let's get off" Terra and Lee both nodded.

"It's not brainwashing!" Terra's eyes widened and Gaara turned round to see…

Kimimaro.

He was moving through the bone like a transparency. He could walk through it jus like Terra could the earth. The bone that Gaara's defence had smashed earlier was back on his arm and he looked ready to kill.

"He is… Orochimaru-sama is the only one that understands me!" He drew back his arm. Gaara and Lee couldn't move. Terra on the other hand… "How could you guys possibly know!" He threw his arm forward.

"Not on my watch!" yelled Terra. She stood up and ran in front of Gaara.

"Wind shield!" She swept her hands quickly in front of her and held them in front of her. Kimimaro smashed straight through her shield and plunged the bone into Terra. For the third time that day it only just missed her vital organs but plunged straight into her shoulder. The bone had bounced of her shield ever so slightly to put the direction off. Terra screamed in pain but didn't give up.

"You're giving... people... the wrong… idea!" She threw him back and he stayed in the branch of bone he came up from.

"You are no match for me _Terra_." Kimimaro drew back his arm again as Terra fell to her knees.

"Lee… Gaara… Sorry" she fell forward and Gaara caught her. Kimimaro went to chuck his arm forward but stopped.

Stopped dead.

The wind blew. Rustling clothes and hair.

"He's dead…" Gaara nodded and commanded his sand to get down.

When they were safely on the ground leaning against some trees Lee went to work on Terra's wound. Roughly bandaging it, trying to stop the bleeding. Eventually it slowed to a trickle.

"We need to get her home quickly" Gaara nodded.

"I completely lost" mumbled Gaara. His gourd was rested against a tree, and he had his back against another tree watching Lee tending for Terra, whose eyes were closed and hair was tussled.

"That's not true" replied Lee. He stopped working on Terra and sat back on his haunches. "My sensei taught me, that luck is part of your skill."

"That meddling fool?"

"He's not a meddling fool! At that time…" Lee's memory flashed back to the chuunin exams "it was because I was too cowardly! I am grateful for your help, but please do not speak about my sensei that way!" Gaara let no emotion show on his face.

"You too, huh?" Lee looked at Gaara slightly confused. "When you feel that the name of the one you admire is disgraced, you are terribly hurt and become enraged. The more precious that person is to you… Fighting for those that are important to you… he was… the same as Uzumaki Naruto. But just because someone is important to you, doesn't necessarily mean that person is good."

"Do you think so? I don't think any one would consider a bad person important"

"No. Even if you knew that person was evil. People cannot win against their loneliness." Lee nodded and took this in.

_He is wise as well as strong. And it shows he is not just a heartless monster, he has feelings. We just choose not to accept them._

Terra groaned and shuffled slightly.

"We best get a move on" suggested Lee. Gaara nodded and stood then bent down to pick up Terra.

And the trio began to make their way back to the village.

**Authoress: Yes it's that famous time! R&R!! Please do it, as a Christmas present to me? –Puppy dog eyes- As another christmas presant can you guys please vote for my site in a competition? If i get enough votes i'll upload my next chapter... TODAY!!!**

**It won't let me put the link so just take out the spaces in this link: www. NarutoOCs. piczo. com**

**Quote: "It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb."**

**--Roman proverb**


	17. Chapter 17 Disobedience

Chapter 17

Disobedience

(Terra)

When I woke up I was being carried by Gaara. I didn't want him to put me down so I pretended to still be asleep. I felt really groggy and my head was swimming with images of the fight. I tried to move my arm to a better position but I couldn't. It was caked in dry blood. That was when I decided I was never to jump in front of someone like that again. Gaara's grip was firm and sure, and I felt safe there. I let him carry me to the entrance of the village then pretended to wake up.

"Where am I?" Gaara put me down and I flinched as I raised my not so hurt arm to my injured shoulder.

"We're home" replied Lee "And we both need to go to the hospital!" What was he sp pleased about! Oh no. I'm not going there. Not me. I'm fed up of there. It's like a freaking second home! And he's smiling about it!

"I'm fine! I smiled. They both just looked at my shoulder. "Oh this?" I looked a t them quizzically "No big deal, it's just a scratch, just give me some dinosaur plasters with pink wellies and I'll be fine!" I smiled but the joke went straight over their heads. "You two have never heard of those plasters?" Lee slowly shook his head and Gaara just looked bored. That joke went to waste on them…

"C'mon lets go" said Lee. He grabbed my non-hurt arm and dragged me towards the hospital. I looked back at Gaara with my best puppy dog eyes, but to no avail. He just crossed his arms and followed us. Slowly.

When we got to the hospital Tsunadae was waiting for us. I would like to say she welcomed us with open arms, and the whole of the staff congratulated me on retrieving Lee. But she didn't, so I won't. Suddenly I went all sheepish and looked at the floor.

"Wow. You look pretty bashed up for a retrieval mission" Tsunadae raised her eyebrows at my bloody arm with three deep puncture marks in it. "You should have fainted from loss of blood by now"

"Well actually she has. Gaara had to carry her back" Lee grinned and Tsunadae looked at him.

"And you!" she shouted. Really very loudly. "What do you think you're doing! You are in no condition! You just came out of major surgery Lee!" I sniggered and got the dagger look from Tsunadae. At the mention of Lee's name a figure dashed in.

"Lee!" It cried.

"Gai sensei!" Lee cried back. They entered an embrace but I was looking at the person that came in behind Gai.

"I take it the mission is complete then" he smiled with warm eyes.

"Heh… yeah" I smiled and put my hand to the back of my head. If I looked sheepish before I must have looked eweish now… He came over and ruffled my hair. I scowled at him and then laughed.

"Let's go get you cleared up" he said to me. I followed him out of the reception and into a room where Shizune was waiting.

"Come here" she said. I went to her and she raised her hands to my shoulder. They began to glow green. Suddenly a question twigged in my brain.

"How's Naruto?" I asked.

"He came back hours ago" Shizune replied. "We had to tie him down to the bed so he wouldn't run off and train more."

"Bed?" I asked in slight puzzlement. There was an awkward silence and the Kakashi spoke.

"Sasuke wasn't brought back" I said nothing and stared into space in disbelief.

_Naruto was… defeated?_

When I resurfaced from my own world I realised Shizune had finished.

"You need to go next door to Tsunadae and collect clothes and treatment to stay overnight"

"Overnight!" I shouted. I tried to calm my self down and then continued ""I really can't stay. I have to do… stuff; I have to go see… people!"

"You have suffered from immense blood loss" she said while scribbling a note "you need to be monitored overnight!" she sealed the note with chakra and handed it to me. "Now go" I walked into the corridor with Kakashi.

"Listen I have to go now okay? Talk to Sakura at some point before tomorrow. Bye" with a quick wave and a poof of smoke he was gone. I walked into the room where I would meet Tsunadae. I saw a desk and a bed. And those horrible blue hospital walls. I shuddered.

I am not staying here overnight.

I walked in with an air of attitude around me. I passed the note to Tsunadae with a slight 'huff'. Tsunadae started reading it and began to shake her head.

That can't be a good sign.

"I'm going to have to keep you for two nights"

"B-but I…I…!" Tsunadae looked at me as I was about to start protesting and I automatically shut my mouth. Oh boy…

_Right…_ Tsunadae turned her back to me and began searching through her desk._ Where did I put that medicine? _She found the medicine and without looking and put it onto the desk, so I put it straight into my ninja pouch by my kunai. _Now for the clothes… _Tsunadae continued to think. _Right it could be here… aha! Found it... now… WHAT!!!_

Tsunadae turned round to find that I was gone and the window was open admitting a small cool autumn's breeze. All throughout the village Tsunadae's voice echoed.

"TERRRRAAA!" followed by everyone's head being shaken.


	18. Chapter 18 Training

Terra sat with her back to the tree named Orchid. Terra spoke aloud to her.

"This may be a weird question to ask you, but, have you ever been in love?" The tree groaned in the wind.

"Just because I'm a tree doesn't mean I can't have emotions you know" Terra nodded her head. "Actually, before I was a tree, before any of us were trees, we were woodland fairies." Terra looked with bright eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes" The tree replied. As a highly recognised tree, I actually was the princess's guardian" Terra smiled as the tree ruffled her hair. "I fell in love with the guardian of the prince. But... I was killed in doing my duty… and so I came back as an important tree, but when I die, I will return to being a fairy and meet him one day again"

"It's impossible to win isn't it?" Terra sighed a heavy sigh.

"What?"

"Love. I once heard someone say that love is a game that you cannot win" Terra's eyes diverted to the floor.

"I've heard some things in my time" said Orchid "but not that love is 'won'. Isn't it better to love and to lose than never know love at all? Love isn't a game, but you could say that if love was won, and it's true love, the game is one on both sides" Orchid had a smile in her voice.

"I guess you're right…" Terra's eyes lifted. She thought about what had been said.

"Hey, Terra!" a new voice shouted through the trees. "Who were you talking to?" Naruto walked over.

"No one" Terra smiled "What are you doing out here?"

"Sakura is training with Tsunadae, so I was wondering if you wanted to train with me?"

"Oh I see how it is!" Terra laughed "Second best am I?" Naruto grinned his cheesy smile.

"What do you want to do?" while Naruto was thinking she heard a twig crack somewhere unseen but near them. Naruto looked up and they both through a Kunai into the bush.

Kakashi's head popped up.

"Whoa there. It's just me. I was wondering if you wanted to train, since I have nothing to do" We both looked at each other and seized the opportunity with both hands.

"Yes!" cried Terra. She was smiling brightly and Naruto had a cheesy grin back on his face.

Kakashi took them deep into the forest, and it was when Terra saw a magnificent waterfall that they stopped. Water was cascading down the cliff face and plunging into the clear water below. The water in the pool was deep and blue. There were wild grasses and plants growing from the cracks in the rocks. Butterflies of all colours were dancing in and out of the leaves.

Kakashi had walked onto a slight ledge jutting from the cliff. It was about 8 feet from the water below the fall.

"Up here!" he shouted with a non forgiving smile under that mask of his. The two became worried when he held two vials full of a bright blue liquid. Then he asked them to drink them. The two looked at each other.

They each took a vial and drank it in one swift gulp. Suddenly Kakashi had his hands to his head.

"Stop thinking so much!"

"Hey, that's the first time I've been asked to do that…" said Naruto.

"Not that you could think in the first place" grinned Terra. He gave a warning look and looked back to Kakashi.

"Now that you have drunk that I can hear your every thought or whether you're not thinking" Kakashi giggled to himself as the two young ninjas looked disgusted.

"I think it's mostly a not for Naruto" Terra smiled.

"Oi teme! Watch your mouth!" shouted Naruto "You couldn't do this if you tried! I don't think you're any better than me!" Terra clenched her fist.

"Well you're right about the not thinking part!"

"Okay!" Kakashi raised his hand in a surrendering way. "Close your eyes and don't think" Terra and Naruto were suddenly concentrating and tried not to think. Terra already half knew what she was doing. Kakashi had taught this to her before. There was a trick to it, you had to almost put a psychic wall between two parts of your brain so you could still think but without the enemy hearing it. So here went nothing for the two young ninjas.

_I wonder how Sakura is? She's off training with Tsunadae, but when she's back I'll show her how strong I am!"_

"Too bad" Kakashi's voice rang out over the waterfall. Two seconds later Kakashi had pushed Naruto into that waterfall. Next thing anyone knew, Naruto was a bedraggled orange. Terra opened her eyes to look at Naruto and burst out laughing.

"Naruto you stupid shi-" A couple of seconds later Terra was drenched and 8 feet lower. Under his mask Kakashi burst into a smile.

Terra and Naruto stood up coughing and spluttering. They both looked at Kakashi with very angry eyes. They looked at each other and burst into laughter, each thy deep in water.

"By the way" Kakashi cut in

"Ouch! Cut it out Naruto!" Terra yelled at Naruto as she felt a sharp pain in her leg.

"It's not me!" he yelled defensively. Kakashi chuckled and gained both of their attentions.

"There are piranhas" The look on the two ninjas faces was unnameable. And then came the screaming.

"Get me out!"

"What the hell!"

"KAKASHI!"

Hours later Naruto and Terra had been bitten and soaked many more times. But now, finally, they could successfully keep people out of their minds.

"Phew" Terra wiped her forehead with the back of her damp glove "glad that's over" Naruto gave her a cheesy grin and Kakashi was… well… Kakashi.


	19. Chapter 19 Moving On

Disclaimer: I own no characters from this series. But I do own Terra and Hakura! Mwahahaha!

Authoress: -Cough- Yes well… enjoy!

**Chapter 19**

Moving On

It's been about half a year since that training session. I've been thinking and I've realised it's about time for me too start doing some serious training. The road ahead of us is long and hard, so I might as well pack for it now…

I've been here for a year now, but it seems like so much longer. The whole of my life even… if it wasn't for some of those events… I'm sure if it wasn't for those bad memories I would have thought that I'd been here for my whole life…

I dropped the pen I had been using as my fingers burnt from writing so furiously. I shut the cover to my diary and thought to myself.

"I guess it's time for me to meet them… Naruto said he had something to tell us anyway, so I guess I should tell them my news then…" I looked up at my bed where Hakura was looking at me expectantly.

"Are you ready boy?" his ears cocked and his eyes shined expectantly "You have to train too you know!" he padded over to me jumping off the bed and placed his two front paws on my knees. "Soon you'll be powerful enough to take on your own enemies!" he licked my face making me laugh. He jumped down and chased his tail in so many rings I began to get dizzy.

Memories of the year came flooding back as I stared outside my window. The leaves blew gently in the wind reminding me of everything. How Sakura and I had become best friends, how Naruto and I had become like brother and sister in every way. The arguing, name calling, laughing, prank pulling but above all the love, the love and protection we had for each other. The sand siblings had become apart of my life. Kankuro I didn't get on with to well, he didn't know what to think of me. He still doesn't… Temari is a lot of fun and Gaara... well, lets just say I have no idea where I stand with him. Not forgetting Gai's team… that Neji was onto something though… I had thought with and next to fuzzy brows and spent many a time shopping with Tenten. And everyone else… Ino who Sakura and I rivalled but secretly admired, Hinita the shy but more than capable girl. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji and of course the many run ins I'd had with Tsunadae and Shizune. Not to mention my brother, Kakashi…

But now it's time for me to search for my past. To find why this thing is here under my glove, and who gave me it.

Time to meet the friends of the one which lives within me…

"You're leaving!" Terra and Sakura shouted together. Naruto nodded very hard and Jiraji looked on impatiently.

"When I come back you won't even recognise me!" Terra shook her head and Sakura let out a sigh of disbelief. "It's true! You'll see! I will become a great ninja and then we can go and get Sasuke!" With that the atmosphere changed. The three friends were silent for a couple of minutes as the wind rustled the leaves. Sakura and Terra's hair was blown from their faces and they could see the passion burning in Naruto's eyes.

"Well in that case" smiled Terra "I'll work my hardest to become a great ninja too!" Sakura smiled at Terra.

_Never ceases to cheer up the mood._

Sakura looked at Terra in amazement. How she could do that in situations like this was unexplainable.

"Well, I guess my training with Tsunadae will have to go straight into action then!" Sakura smiled at her old friends. Jiraji looked at the three young Ninjas.

_This is going to be a long hard journey. Especially for Terra and Naruto. Terra has to learn to use what is within her, as does Naruto. They are more similar than they care to see. Both striving to stay happy and both wielding a power bigger than all the hokages together… These three could be quite a trio._

He smiled to himself and looked at Naruto.

"Time to go kid!" Naruto looked at his friends and nodded his head in a goodbye. He walked away and Terra and Sakura looked at each other.

"He'll become great" said Sakura.

"You think so?"

"I do." The two best friends embraced each other. "I think this is where we part also" Terra looked at Sakura, who had tears brimming. Terra stepped back. "Don't cry you big softie!" Terra laughed at her.

"I know I'll be tougher, when you see me next Terra, I'm working with Tsunadae. Then, we will see who's crying" She laughed then stopped, looking confused. Terra cocked her head in question. "Where are you going?" asked Sakura. Terra gave a quick laugh.

"Well, it looks like you and Naruto have taken the best teacher's so I'm going with my brother travelling for a while. Well, two years to be exact"

"Two years without my best friend! And without Naruto!" Sakura laughed and so did Terra. Terra turned to go.

"Well, I guess this is it." She gave Sakura a quick wave, not wanting anything to last longer than it already had.

"Bye"

"Goodbye and good luck!" Sakura smiled.

Terra was by the gate with a small backpack getting ready to go.

"Always late…" with that a poof of smoke appeared and from that smoke appeared her brother. "Ready to go Kakashi?" Terra asked.

"Of course" he replied. Terra smiled and started to walk out of the front gate. She stopped and turned around and looked at the village that had accepted her from the day she started. The wind blew her hair behind her as the sun was sinking behind the mountain that had upon it the carved faces of four hokages.

"Goodbye Konoha. Wish me luck!" As if it had heard her, the sun burnt brightly one last time then sank behind the cliffs.

"Let's go Terra" she turned around to see her brother leading the way.

"This is where the journey really begins" Terra whispered.

And now it's time for me to search for my past. To find what this thing is on my wrist and why it's there.

That was two years ago.

And since then I had the chance to meet the friends of the one which lives within me…

The Earth Demon…

**Authoress:** I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know I have been so very slow with updates and for that I am truly sorry but GCSE's and science revision has been getting most of my attention. But I have decided after this the chapters will have way more of my attention. The next part of the stories will be after the time skip in Naruto. I will warn if there are spoilers but there won't ever be that many. So there you go, look forward to longer, better written, more exciting chapters!


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